Donation of Sanitary Towels to Girls living with disability

In May, the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) donated sanitary towels and garments worth Kshs. 300,000/- to girls living with disability at 8 schools in Kakamega County. REA was invited to carry out the CSR activity by former nominated Senator Hon. Godliver Omondi, and the current Member of the County Assembly (MCA) for Kholera Ward, Kakamega County. She is also the Patron of the United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK). The REA team that accompanied the former nominated Senator included Elizabeth Onoka, Lucy Muricho and Anne Bosibori.

The schools which benefited from this CSR activity include Bulimbo Special school, Matungu SDA Special school for the mentally handicapped, Koyonzo Special School for the visually impaired, Kiyondo Special school, St. Angela Secondary school for the deaf, Arise and Shine special school for the disabled, Daisy Special school for the physically handicapped and vocational training and Kakamega Special school for the deaf, all in Kakamega County.

During visit, Hon. Godliver shared her experience growing up as a disabled girl in the village and the way she managed to grow to become a Senator despite the challenges. She encouraged the girls to overlook their physical challenges and to work hard towards achieving their dreams.

On behalf of the schools visited, Hon. Omondi thanked REA for the support and requested for future partnership between REA and UDPK to offer support to persons living with disability through REA’s CSR programme. The REA officials encouraged the UDPK and the respective schools to send in their proposals for CSR partnership each year for consideration noting that REA is a disability conscious organization that considers employment and procurement opportunities for persons living with disability.

 

REA hosts Mali Rural Electrification Agency on benchmarking tour

The Mali Government is keen on implementing electrification projects similar to those put in place by the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) in order to promote sustainable socio-economic development of rural communities in the West African country.

Speaking during a benchmarking tour to REA, leader of delegation, Hamadoun Oumar Toure, Deputy Director of the Malian Agency for the Development of Household Energy and Rural Electrification (AMADER), said the purpose of the visit to REA was to share the Kenyan experience in off-grid electrification accomplishments, the role of government and regulators in developing the energy off-grid sector and the role of the private sector.

“We are impressed by the work that REA is doing, our mission was to learn about the progress and programs that have been implemented in rural electrification and at this level I can see that Kenya has realized a lot and we have learnt a lot” said Toure

The delegation was appraised on REA’s Project implementation and off-grid electrification activities and the challenges that the Authority is facing as it works towards the goal of achieving universal access by the year 2022.

Edward Gakunju, Manager Business Development at REA informed the delegation that the Authority is now shifting focus to renewable energy sources only as it carries out electrification activities in off-grid areas and that electrification in the country was now at 68%. “We still have a lot to do in connecting the remaining 32%, we also have issues of lowering tariffs because we would like to have more of that from renewable energy and we are requesting for continued support from the government” Gakunju said. There are 88,570 public facilities in the country out of which 28,323 are un-electrified.

The visit was facilitated by the World Bank Lighting Africa program. The objective of the program is to enable more than 250 million people across sub-Saharan Africa currently living without electricity to gain access to clean, affordable, quality off-grid lighting and energy products by 2030.

Gakunju added that REA is also implementing projects with development partners like the World Bank “without them some of these projects would not be implemented” He singled out the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (K-OSAP) project which he said is a huge project by the World Bank and once implemented it will be a major milestone for electrifying off-grid areas.

K-OSAP is a15.5 Billion shillings World Bank funded project aimed at increasing access to electricity services in underserved counties in Kenya. Beneficiaries will be households, public and community institutions, enterprises and community facilities that cannot access electricity through the national grid and whose use of electricity will replace kerosene and other fuels for lighting and other activities like pumping water.

The 55 MW Garissa Solar Power Plant

East and Central Africas’ largest solar power plant is taking shape and will soon be feeding 54.64 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity into the national grid.   This is the first time that Kenya has developed a major solar power plant to harness its abundant solar energy resource to diversify the power generation mix and reduce energy costs. 

The project which occupies a total of 200 acres is located in Barki Village, Raya Location in Garissa County 15 Kilometers away from Garissa Town. The project is funded by the People’s Republic of China at a cost of KsH 13 Billion and is being implemented through a consortium of 3 Chinese engineering companies who are undertaking civil, mechanical and electrical works. 

On completion, all the generated power will be sold to Kenya Power through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed under the Feed-in-Tariff policy.The plant will consist of 210,000 solar photovoltaic panels set on an 85 hectare piece of land. To support the project, a 6 Kilometre132 Kilo Vault (KV) transmission line with 16 pylons (towers) is under construction between the REA solar power plant and the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) substation in Garissa. The power plant is expected to be commissioned this year.

The completion of this project is expected to further open up Garissa County which is the economic hub of the north eastern region by enhancing economic development by boosting business and other economic activities such as tourism. The local community in Raya is already benefitting through employment

The local community is also benefiting through REA Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of the project which include drilling of a borehole with storage tank and piping, construction and equipping of a dispensary, construction and equipping of a primary school, construction of a 3km access road to the community farm, refurbishment of the local police post and face lifting chief’s camp to enhance security in the area.

Implementation of the 50MW Garissa project is in line with REA’s strategic objectives to develop and promote renewable energy sources and also to enhance electricity access by the Year 2020. REA is also implementing 25 solar power mini-grid projects to electrify off- grid centres in Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, Marsabit and Turkana.