Kenya Power’s rural maintenance services deteriorating
What you need to know:
- But at the regional offices, you can call the whole day without getting through, and should you walk there, it takes at least four days before electricity is restored.
The government is putting massive investment in the electricity sub-sector in order to meet the 5,000 megawatts target by 2016.
Projects to generate power from solar, hydroelectric, coal, geothermal and wind are going on concurrently. Electricity from natural gas will follow once the recently discovered gas in northern Kenya starts being exploited.
However, all these efforts might be futile if the government ignores maintenance. Kenya Power came up with rather exciting initiatives to impress the public, but all in vain.
It installed state-of-the art communication equipment in its headquarters Contact Centre, where callers are answered in a split second and advised where to channel their complaints.
But at the regional offices, you can call the whole day without getting through, and should you walk there, it takes at least four days before electricity is restored.
By using private transport at night the personnel can easily be mistaken for vandals and lynched or gunned down by police. Private trucks also transport electricity poles while private technicians are contracted to erect electricity posts and provide external wiring to buildings.
That means that the company is in dire need of a well-trained and qualified work force. This should explain the erratic power supply and costly infernos.
AGGREY TIEMA KULALI, Luanda
