Rural Electrification Authority in spotlight over delayed power connections

KISII, KENYA: Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy have expressed dissatisfaction on the ongoing schools rural electrification program in Kisii County.
The team was in Kisii County over the weekend to assess success of the program but noted that most schools lacked proof of actual power connections against the records forwarded to the committee.
According to Rural Electrification Authority (REA) they have so far connected 18,265 schools countrywide. REA had hoped to connect 22,300 others by the end of June 2015.
Committee members comprising Joe Mutambui (Mwingi Central), Richard Rongi (Nyaribari Chache), Zebedeo Opore (Bonchari) and Mohammed Elmy (Wajir) were part of the energy delegation on a fact finding mission in the county to assess progress of the primary schools lighting program.
Energy officials accompanying the lawmakers failed to give satisfactory answers on the sagging wires and idle transformers.
The officials were put to task to explain why the schools lacked electricity connections even when the records forwarded to the committee showed that they had power.
The committee said 80 percent of the schools they visited had electricity connections on paper only.
The team visited Ekerubo primary where a single class was connected. They later, before abandoning the trip midway, visited Kiong’anyo and Taraja primary schools all of them in Nyaribari Chache constituency.
"We were on a fact finding mission to see if this program is working but what we are seeing exposes lack of accountability and poor use of tax payers money," he said.

Area MP Tongi expressed disappointment after listening thoughtfully to members of the public as they narrated how they had been waiting for the connections in vain.