KenGen is confident in Kenya’s ability to achieve the 2020 goal of providing access to electricity for all of its population. The country currently has an electrification rate of 69.4%, and that figure is rising at a steady rate according to the state-utility firm.
Over the current fiscal year 1.2 million households were connected to the national grid.
“With the progress made so far, we are confident that we will achieve universal access to energy by the end of 2020,” said Ken Tarus, KenGen’s director.
The current focus of the government is connecting rural areas of the country and making sure access to the power is affordable.
“We subsidize the costs of low-income customers to ensure they are connected to the nearest electrical transformer. This will ensure that all households within 600 meters radius of a transformer will be connected to the grid,” Tarus said.
A project worth $123 million has recently been launched to install underground electric cables in the cities of Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa.