Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) publicly exalted President Mwai Kibaki’s initiative to lower energy costs.
Betty Maina, KAM CEO, said in a Business Daily editorial that, “The president was clear; Kenya’s economy could grow by eight per cent by the year 2010 if it had cheaper electricity. Well, this goes far to indicate that the power charges can either make or break the economy.”
“There is no way our goods can compete favorably with those from Egypt given the disparities in power charges — which are major. It is a fact that over the years, Kenya has become very uncompetitive with regard to the cost and provision of power. This is the reason the recent directive by the President was overdue.”
Maina noted that Egypt and South Africa pay 3.1 and four cents per kw of electricity respectively, but Egypt is meant to be a competitor of Kenya as Kenyans only pay 2.1 cents. An analysis by KAM conducted that the President’s initiative will see electricity costs reduced by 23.42% which will help poverty that currently encompasses 50% of the country. Thus, alternative sources need to be taken into further account.
Maina said, “This is a win-win situation for the country because we will be making use of our very own natural resources to produce the much-needed energy.”
“Geothermal production of electricity now when greening the world’s economies and industries is high up on the global agenda, will earn the country foreign backing goodwill,” she concluded.