Kenya connects 8.6 million households to electricity

Kenya has connected approximately 8.6 million households to electricity as of December 2021, up from 7.3 million in January 2020, the energy regulator said on Thursday.

Daniel Kiptoo, director general, Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) told journalists that Kenya is the only country in East Africa with electricity access to over 75 percent of her population.

"The increased access to electricity is a big boost towards the attainment of the country's national development blueprint vision 2030 which seeks to transform Kenya into a newly industrialising, middle-income country by the year 2030," Kiptoo said in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, during the release of the 2021 Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report.

Kiptoo said the country's total installed electricity capacity in the country, including off-grid power, was 2,990 MW as of the end of 2021.

According to the energy regulator, Kenya's energy mix consists of hydro at 838 MW, geothermal at 863 MW, wind power at 437 MW, solar at 173 MW, thermal at 677 MW while biomass is at 2 percent.

Kiptoo observed that bulk of electricity was generated from renewable sources, making Kenya a global leader in renewable energy.

He observed that the state-owned Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) is the county's largest power producer accounting for 62.98 percent of the country's effective generation capacity followed by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who account for 35.95 percent.

The energy regulator noted that off-grid generation under the rural electrification program accounts for the remaining 1.07 percent.