Involve locals in development projects, CS Keter tells contractors

Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum Charles Keter has sounded a tough warning to contractors who fail to involve the local community in development projects in counties.

Speaking at Kiebor Primary School in Kitany in Elgeyo Marakwet, CS Keter made reference to the ongoing Last Mile connection project, saying there is need for contractors to involve the locals in the project in order to ensure improvement of their living standards.

The project is aimed at creating transformation by connecting all homesteads near transformers with electricity.

He further noted that the government together with the development partners African Development Bank (ADB), World Bank and French are pumping over Sh6 billion in the connectivity program that has seen the connection fee dropped from Sh35,000 to Sh15,000 payable within a period of up to 2 years.

At the same time CS Keter said that they have received a pledge of USD100 million from World Bank to support the program which he says will be connected to all household whether permanent or temporary and that they expect to cover 70 percent of the households by June 2017.

“We are ensuring that even the grass thatched houses get connected to power and the payment has been made easier for the ordinary person to repay in up to two years. This constituency will receive 18 transformers in the first phase”, he said.

CS Keter further said that they have budgeted for 1,000 transformers in the next financial year which will see every constituency get five of them but that they will still source for more.

By Elijah Cherutich