Kenya needs to find wys to produce and conserve energy

By Isaac Kalua

Energy efficiency is the silenced and shackled lion that must be set free to steer Africa’s economy forward.

Peter Drucker, the famed management guru once said that, “efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.” The question then becomes, “how can Kenya generate, distribute and sustain energy in the right manner?”

This is the right thing to do.

Every day, Kenya’s 40 million people use energy in different ways and proportions. If energy was in a big pot somewhere in the country, then it means that on any given day, 40 million people march to that pot and scoop portions of that energy. Some scoop energy for cooking, others for fuelling their vehicles, others for charging their smart phones, others for drying their hair and others for running their factories.

Energy efficiency is about using energy both minimally and optimally. In other words, if one scoop is sufficient for charging your smart phone, why should you go for two scoops? If you can buy a refrigerator that uses only two scoops per day, why should you buy one that needs three scoops per day for the same function? Minimal and optimal utilisation of energy is everyone’s responsibility.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  How sustainable sports marketing can lift Africa up
• 
  Mvurya urges varsities to offer mining, blue economy courses
• 
  Military top shots likely to succeed CDF Ogolla
• 
  Hustlers bargained for a toast, but are getting raw deal instead

The government must be energy efficient at the budgetary, operational and policy levels. Banning use of fuel guzzling vehicles by government officials was a policy in the right direction. But it is only a first step that must lead to a thousand more energy efficient policies.

However, lack of government policies must never be an excuse for lack of citizen action. It is incumbent on private motorists and public transport owners to invest in vehicles that are highly fuel efficient. This makes both economic and environmental sense. In Kenya’s last budget, Sh97.9 billion was set aside for continued road expansion, upgrading and rehabilitation. We need policies that will require road contractors to undertake these projects in the most energy efficient manner possible.

It’s all about scaling up the country’s energy demand management so that energy users can consume fewer and fewer scoops of energy for similar, or even more functions. To realise this, there is need for comprehensive energy audits that will identify and seal energy wastage loopholes.

The energy efficiency buck stops, not with the government, but with the people. It is they who must demand of their government policies that are energy efficient even as they embrace energy efficiency in their homes, roads, work places, factories and everywhere. On their part, both public and private sector leaders must become energy efficiency champions who will ensure that the country uses as little energy as possible for as much as possible.

Think green, act green!