REA to spend Sh12b in connecting 11,000 primary schools

By James Mbaka

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) will seek to connect some 11,000 public primary schools to electricity by mid next year at the cost of sh12 billion.

The authority is currently finalising the connection of 5,000 of them across the country while the remaining 6,000 will be connected to power in the next financial year.

The new REA chairman Simon Gicharu said the completion of the connection was in line with the jubilee manifesto to facilitate the rolling out of the laptop project. Speaking when he took office at the REA offices at the chancery building, Gicharu challenged the authority to roll out its services 24hrs to enable realise the dream of delivering electricity to the rural masses to create job employment and reduce rural-urban migration.

“I want to ensure that we open the rural places, light villages and schools to reduce the cost of living and open rural development in line with vision 2030,” Gicharu said adding that he was determined to ensure that the rural people, majority of whom are not connected to power, access electricity to start income generating projects to improve lives.

Gicharu swapped roles with Faisal Abbas who will now chair Geothermal Development Company (GDC).