- Kenya was listed among giant economies like India in expanding access to power between 2010 and 2017
- The country’s connectivity rate was nearly three times that of Uganda’s and almost double Tanzania and Rwanda’s
- Uhuru's Last Mile program saw over 3.6 million homes lit across the country in just four years
- He now wants to realise universal connection to reliable and affordable electricity by next year
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s sustained effort to connect Kenyans to electricity has finally gained global recognition, with Kenya ranked among the world’s top performers in expanding access to power during his first term in office.
A report by the World Bank, which sheds light on what is arguably Jubilee government’s main unsung feat, shows that Kenya currently trail blazes in access to electricity in the region, leading her neighbours by a huge margin.
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With 63.8% access in 2017, currently at 72%, Kenya’s connectivity rate was nearly three times Uganda’s 22%, and almost double Tanzania’s 32.8% and Rwanda’s 34.1%.
Kenya was listed among the world’s top performers in expanding access to power between 2010 and 2017, ranking alongside giant economies like India.
The world average rate was 0.8%.
Within this period, the country’s annual connectivity growth stood at 6.4%, just below Afghanistan’s 7.9 and Cambodia’s 8.3%.
Rwanda lagged behind at 3.4% while Uganda and Tanzania were further behind at 1.4 and 2.4% respectively.
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The growth owes credit to the Last Mile connectivity project, a program introduced by Uhuru immediately he assumed office in 2013.
Amid a pledge to achieve universal access to electricity by 2022, the Head of State embarked on the marathon countrywide connectivity plan that saw power connection fees reduced from KSh 35,000 to a new tariff of KSh 15,000.
In just four years starting 2013, the Last Mile programme saw more Kenyans connected to the grid than were connected in the 50 years since independence.
An additional 3.65 million households were connected to the grid, increasing the total number of Kenyans with access to electricity from 12.8 million in 2013 to 33 million in 2017.
Under the electrification programme since 2013, the government also managed to connect over 22,000 public primary schools to electricity.
This was about double the number of schools connected since independence and catapulted to an impressive 98%, the total coverage of connected public primary schools in the country.
The president followed up on this success in 2017 with a fresh pledge to ensure every citizen is connected to reliable and affordable electricity by 2020.
The African Development Bank doubled its funding for the initiative in 2018.
In what marked a clean bill of health for the Last Mile Program, the bank’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, lauded the initiative it has been funding as the most impactful project to the general public.
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