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{
    "id": 1240373,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1240373/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 596,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Davis Chirchir",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Ksh15,000. We connect you to electricity and bill the Ksh15,000 to your prepaid bill so that we recover it as you use electricity. I just wanted to confirm that whereas Kenya Power is a listed company that operates commercially, we have REREC, which is fully funded by the Government of Kenya to accelerate provision of power to homes and to power or provide the energy that we use on a day-to-day basis in our economic activities. The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum recognises that to a great extent, Members of Parliament support the Last Mile Connectivity Programme's initiative to expedite the delivery of electricity. We will work together. I say that cognisant of the fact that Members have set up a matching fund through the NG-CDF to accelerate the Last Mile Connectivity Programme. We will work together on budgeting to make sure that we accelerate that Programme. During my term – because I was also the Cabinet Secretary for Energy in 2013/2014 and a bit of 2015 – there would be no reason why we would have a single primary school – unless it was a new one – or a secondary school, dispensary and public institutions, which were not connected to power. Like I said, I will provide a list of all public institutions to every MP, with my signature appended on it. The work is very advanced. I should be able to do that within the next seven days. We will audit and confirm where there is no connectivity, particularly within public institutions, and then come up with comprehensive budgets to make sure that we connect those institutions which are highly concentrated. Markets are places of high population concentration, where people come to engage in business. There should be no reason why schools with 500, 600, or 700 children have no power. Once we do this audit, we should be able to come up with a comprehensive budget and ensure that within the next two years, we have connected all our public institutions to electricity. The rest will be maximisation and provision of transformers to dark areas which are 600 metres outside the connectivity range. I will be giving you a schedule of all public institutions in each constituency, and the connectivity status as received from REREC. I will include a column for you to confirm whether there is power or not. Where we agree, we will work together to make sure that we provide an adequate budget to fully connect all our public institutions to electricity in the next two years. The rest will be maximisation and acceleration to ensure that we provide power to where our people live. I do not know whether that answers the Member’s question. There is also the question by Hon. Eric Muchangi Karemba, and the one by Hon. Mulyungi Gideon from Mwingi on the Last Mile Connectivity Programme. Hon. Ruku from Mbeere North asked about devolved legislation. We will work together to make sure that we accelerate this connectivity. Like I said, moving from 2.3 million connections 10 years ago, to 8.5 million plus connections today under the Last Mile Connectivity Programme puts Kenya above Africa’s average, at almost 8 per cent connectivity on average, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). We should work together within the next two years and make sure that we accelerate connectivity to public institutions and, more particularly, maximisation programmes through budget provisions."
}