Residents
of Kibera in Nairobi will now enjoy safe, legal and reliable connection to
electricity supply at affordable rates, Dr. Ben Chumo, the company’s Managing
Director and CEO, has revealed.
Dr
Chumo said this when he joined community leaders in Kibera to launch a special
programme that Kenya Power has developed to assist such potential customers in
informal settlements, who are unable to pay the upfront cost of connection to
electricity.
The
special programme is supported by the GPOBA (Global Partnership of Output-Based
Aid), a World Bank programme, that has helped subsidise the cost of electricity
connection to such residents in different parts of country.
The
programme is designed in such a way that a qualifying resident will pay a
subsidised charge of Shs.1,116 per connection, Dr Chumo added. The World Bank /GPOBA will contribute US$
225(Shs.19,350), while Kenya Power will contribute Kshs.11,970 per connection in
order to make up the standard capital contribution of Kshs.32,480.
“
Kenya Power has opted to pre-invest, which involved using its contribution to
the programme by constructing overhead lines, installing transformers and other
infrastructure to facilitate connection before the customer subsidy can be
claimed from the World Bank” Dr. Ben
Chumo said.
The
company has gone further to make it easier for the residents to get connected
by offering credit facilities. The residents of Kibera will be connected to
prepaid meters which will be installed once the customer signs the necessary
credit documents. The connection fee of Shs.1,160 will then be recovered from
the customer’s purchase of prepaid tokens.
More
than 20,000 customers in Kibera will be connected through the programmes and
hundreds of thousands others are targeted all over the country.
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