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{
    "id": 1398851,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1398851/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 206,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Davis Chirchir",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "morning to respond to the Questions that have been raised. As has been said, I am a frequent member here. I am happy to address some of the challenges as we look forward to building our country together. Following the letter dated 13th February, 2024, which invited us to come and respond to the Question that has been raised by the hon. Member on whether we are aware of the breakdown of over 15 Government-owned power transformers in Kirinyaga County in the last six months and the reasons behind that, I wish to note that the above Question had been asked under Question No.059 on 4th October, 2023. The Ministry is aware and the breakdown of those transformers has been continuously addressed through Kenya Power Company. We replace them once reported. A breakdown of transformers has been experienced, not only in Kirinyaga County, but also in different counties. That has been occasioned by incidences of vandalism of transformers and earthing insulations; illegal connections which when they are done without due respect to the capacity of those transformers, cause overloading. Sometimes, we lose transformers frequently because of those illegal connections, therefore, overloading those transformers. Thirdly, the faults on the low voltage lines due to trees and the environmental challenges causes breakdown from time to time. Hon. Senators, to counter these incidences and improve on reliability of the grid, the Government has put up the following measures- (i) Continuous monitoring is done on the power network to ensure failed transformers are replaced in the shortest possible time. (ii) Listing of power installation is under critical infrastructure, as a result, there is a special police unit called Energy Police Unit that is mandated to protect all energy infrastructure from generation transmission to distribution. Let me give a small background of the challenges and why we are trying to play a catch-up game in these areas of transformers. We have had as I mentioned and will again mention in the next Question, a serious litigation on the procurement front. When power goes off and it is a transformer, it is expected that we respond immediately because it is a critical service supporting hospitals, among other critical functions. When we lose a transformer and have a litigation on procurement of transformers, which you maybe aware, lasted between two to three years, there was so much backlog. At one time, we had many transformers paid for by customers up to 951. We were not able to procure because of those litigation issues. Transformers which were required for the funded Government last mile schemes were up to 561 which we were unable to procure. We created a backlog of up to 1700 transformers, creating a challenge in addressing some of these transformers. That is why we have had this transformer challenge on why we do not immediately bring in a replacement when there has been a breakdown. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir and Senators, we are on top of this trying to ensure the problem of transformers is addressed once and for all so that we do not have these inordinate delays in replacing defective transformers. I do not know whether the question on inordinate delay in replacing defective power transformers in Kirogo, Maendeleo and"
}