Treasury slashes Sh1.3 billion for rural electrification

By Frankline Sunday

Kenya: Public facilities and homes in rural areas will have to wait for at least one more year to be connected to national electricity grid.

This follows Government failure to allocate Sh1.3 billion to Rural Electrification Authority (REA).

In its report released yesterday, Parliament’s Budget and Appropriations Committee indicated that there will be no allocation for several new and existing energy projects. REA is tasked with accelerating rural electrification, a function previously undertaken by Ministry of Energy.

Data from the authority indicated that rural electrification has increased from 4 per cent in 2003 to 22 per cent in June 2011.

Although the authority occasionally receives funds from other development partners like World Bank, the drop in Treasury allocations will be a blow to its operations. Similar energy projects that have suffered cut in funding include renewable energy project to be rolled out this year to selected arid and semi-arid areas.

These include Sh500 million development expenditure allocations to install photovoltaic solar systems in areas like Garissa to help generate solar energy.