After decades of darkness, 87-year-old Priscilla Kamene of Kisekini village, Mlango location, has finally seen her home connected to electricity, a moment she never thought would come in her lifetime.
She is among 7,500 households benefiting from the ongoing Last Mile Connectivity programme in Kitui County.
Because of her age, Kamene said she had resigned herself to the belief that electricity would never reach her home. But the programme’s accelerated rollout changed everything, allowing her to trade her tin lamp for a simple switch on the wall.
“Looking back on the years and how far I have come, I am very happy that finally I have electricity in my home and from today, I will just be happy and celebrating,” she said, beaming.
“As you can see, even my friends have come here to celebrate with me, I do not even know what to say, I am excited; my heart is full of joy,” she added. “Tonight, I will have very nice sleep.”
“I will sleep like a little baby because I am very happy,” she affirmed.
Kamene said poor lighting had long put her at risk. “According to her, she had been living in fear of stepping on snakes and other reptiles at night because of poor lighting, but the fear is now gone.”
“With electricity, there will be enough light in my house and I will even be able to see all the corners, and even if a snake enters the house, I will be able to see clearly,” she said.
“I am so happy, may God bless the government and President Ruto for providing me with electricity,” she said.
Kenya Power last week announced the completion of a Sh22 million inter-connector between Kitui and Machakos Counties, expected to stabilise electricity supply around SEKU University, Kwavonza and Katangini, while offering alternative supply to customers in parts of Machakos.
“This project will enhance service delivery and customer experience by improving the quality of power supply,” said John Wanyoike, Kenya Power’s Kitui County Business Manager.
He said SEKU University and surrounding customers previously relied on the Masii power line, which often experienced outages due to its long stretch. To further expand access and reduce strain on existing lines, Kenya Power is also set to construct a substation at Mbitini.
The new substation will boost supply and minimise outages in areas such as Zombe, Ikanga, Voo and Ikutha.
Over the last two years, the company has doubled the capacity of Kitui Substation to 10MVA and built a dedicated 33kV line to improve reliability.
“The demand for electricity has been soaring recently, mainly from upcoming light industries and other customers that we have connected to the grid,” said Wanyoike.
“To meet this demand, we have increased the capacity at the Kitui Substation and dedicated a 33kV line to the substation, with no other connections on it.”
“Prior to these upgrades, we used to experience frequent power outages as the substation’s capacity was not adequate to serve all customers,” he added.
More than 94,000 households in Kitui are currently connected to the national grid, a figure expected to rise significantly once Phase IV of the Last Mile Connectivity Project is completed.
To strengthen power infrastructure, Kenya Power has also replaced about 1,200 termite-damaged wooden poles with concrete ones, investing nearly Sh140 million in the last financial year.
