Kenya Power is expected to connect 9,121 households in four counties to the national grid after securing Ksh 1.85 billion from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Under Phase V of the Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMCP) the grant will finance electricity connection in Nakuru, Kilifi, Kwale and Nyandarua counties where JICA is financing other key energy projects.
“We expect to connect all the targeted households across the four counties by January 2025. The Company is committed to fast-tracking electricity connections across the country to achieve universal access to electricity,” said Rosemary Oduor, General Manager for Commercial Services and Sales at Kenya Power.
The support from Japan comes two months after Kenya Power signed twenty-six contracts for the implementation of Phase IV of the LMCP.
“We thank JICA for the grant which will go a long way to enable these households to access electricity and transform their livelihoods,” added Oduor.
Phase IV of the project is funded by the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Union (EU) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to the tune of Ksh 27 billion and will connect at least 280,000 new customers to the grid by November 2025.
Kenya Power says it has spent a total of Ksh 73.1 billion to date in the project which is anchored on the Kenya National Electrification Strategy developed in 2015 to enhance electricity access in the country.
The project has seen Kenya’s electricity access rate rise to 76pc of the population with 9.6 million households connected to the grid.
A total of 746,867 households have been connected to the grid under the first three phases of at a cost of Ksh 51.1 billion.
