Lamu County gets connected to national power grid

Kenya Power staff at work. Lamu County has finally been connected to the national electricity grid. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • Lamu County will no longer depend on Kenya Power diesel generators.
  • The county is looking for investors since it now had adequate power supply.
  • Businesses have made losses after electricity was cut off, leading to refrigerated products going bad.

Lamu County has finally been connected to the national electricity grid. This means the county will no longer depend on Kenya Power diesel generators as it has for the past 53 years.

Governor Issa Timamy said the decades that the county had relied on generators had dissuaded many investors from establishing huge industries there.

Mr Timamy said he was hopeful that the national government’s connection of Lamu to the national grid will see an end to constant power outages there. He said the county was looking for investors since it now had adequate power supply.

Mr Timamy said: “No investor was ready to risk and establish an industry in Lamu while relying on power from generators.

“I laud the national government for its efforts in ensuring that we are also connected to the national grid.

“As we mark the 53rd Madaraka Day, the county takes pride in being among the regions in the country that enjoy power from the national grid.

“Businesses have made losses on various occasions after electricity was cut off, leading to refrigerated products going bad. That is now in the past.”

COAL POWER PLANT

Lamu Council of Elders chairman Sharif Salim said development in the county had been held back for the past half a century due to lack of a reliable electricity.

He said with the multibillion-shilling projects such as the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor (Lapsset), coal power plant and Kenwind projects that require adequate electricity supply, that could not have happened.

Mr Salim said he expected the move to change the course of the county’s economy for the better since all sectors are expected to immensely deliver.
“We thank the national government for connecting us to the national grid,” said Mr Salim. “I am proud to be a Kenyan.”

Meanwhile, trade and tourism stakeholders, led by Lamu Tourism Association deputy chairman Ghalib Alwy, have called on the national government to speed up tarmacking of the main Lamu-Garsen road, saying it was scaring away investors.

“Tourists and businessmen fear coming and investing in Lamu because of the poor state of our roads,” said Mr Alwy.

During his two-day Lamu tour in January, President Uhuru Kenyatta promised that the government would construct the road by the following month.