Kiambu County Woman Representative Anne Wamuratha now blames frequent nationwide blackouts on numerous connectivity of Kenyans to the national grid.
Wamuratha said that while millions of Kenyans have been connected with electricity through the Last Mile Connectivity Programme, a government flagship project initiated to provide affordable connection in rural and peri-urban areas, power generation was not increased and as a result, the current supply is inadequate and is to blame for overloads.
Speaking during a Thika Water and Sewerage Company (Thiwasco) stakeholder’s consultative forum, the county MP urged Kenyans to stop blaming the current government for everything.
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To address power outages that have been paralyzing economic activities, Wamuratha rooted for increased power generation and for the establishment of power stations to facilitate sustainable and smooth distribution of power.
She insisted that the government has continued to fix the challenges that have been bedevilling Kenyans saying that the Ksh66 billion, provided by the government to unbundle the transmission line system so that power failure in one part does not affect the entire country, will comprehensively deal with the challenge of power failure and end frequent blackouts.
Wamuratha, who highlighted her achievements as the Woman Representative for the year 2023, urged Kenyans to give the government time to prove its ability to deliver the promises made during the campaign period.
“Please stop making unfounded claims, blackouts are happening because of overloads in the power systems. The former government made numerous connections but did not increase the generation of power. We have so many connected but the supply is low. We now need to build new stations that will tap the power for smooth distribution," Wamuratha said.
Aimed at accelerating universal electricity access to drive social economic growth in line with the country’s 2030 development agenda, the Last Mile Connectivity, which also sought to provide access to clean and affordable energy for all, saw more than one million Kenyan households connected to electricity under the first three phases of the programme.
Speaking at the same event, Kiambu County Assembly deputy speaker John Njiru called for the reinstatement of fired Thiwasco staff for continuity delivery of good services.
“We are requesting reinstatement of all those who were fired by the water company for better days ahead,” he said.
Njiru said the Kiambu government is committed to improving Thiwasco’s capacity by modernizing and increasing its treatment plant equipment to not ensure continuous water flow among Thika residents.
“We want to improve the capacity of delivery for Thika Water by pumping more money that will see the firm increase its storage and treatment equipment,” Njiru added.
