By Antony Gitonga

Nairobi,Kenya:The government has announced an ambitious plan to increase power production in the country to 5,000mw in the next three years.

According to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Energy Davis Chirchir, plans were under way to achieve the target in 40 months.

Speaking after visiting Olkaria power plant in Naivasha, Mr Chirchir said geothermal as one area that was yet to be fully exploited.

“In fact our tour here at Olkaria is to assess how much of the 5,000mw will come from geothermal,” he said.

On the ongoing 280mw plant in Naivasha, Mr Chirchir said the cost of electricity will not only go down but also be at competitive rates with other parts of the world once the plant was complete.

“The competitive cost of electricity will be an incentive to inviting foreign industries to the country and thus open up more employment opportunities for our people,” said Mr Chirchir.

He said that the first phase of 280mw plant will be officially handed over to KenGen in March 2014 while the second one will be handed over in July the same year.

He added that the cost of electricity connection could go down with the introduction of computer programmes in primary schools.

Mr Chirchir attributed the likelihood of the cost drop to installation of electricity transformers to all community centres where public primary schools are located.

“With the installation of transformers at the community centres where public primary schools are, we expect the cost of connection to go down,” said Mr Chirchir.

This comes barely a couple of days after the Ministry of Energy issued a statement of a possible increase of the cost of electricity connection from the current Sh35,0000 to Sh70,000.

Responding to the statement, Mr Chirchir said that an audit is underway to determine the most appropriate connection fee.

“Once the audit is complete, the government will advise accordingly regarding the true connection fee,” said Mr Chirchir.

Regarding the impact of the current construction works at Olkaria on the future of Hell’s Gate National Park, the Cabinet Secretary dispelled fears of any interference with the park.

He said that they are working closely with environment conservation agencies such as the NEMA to ensure that the park was not interfered with.