Kenyan Members of Parliament (MPs) have asked the Treasury and Ministry of Energy to settle outstanding payments totalling KES43 billion owed by various power utilities in Kenya.
The National Assembly’s Committee on Energy presented these figures as part of the report on the scrutiny of the budget implementation by Ministry of Energy for 2022-23. The unpaid dues involve entities such as the state-owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) (KES22.2 billion), Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC or Kenya Power) (KES19.6 billion), Geothermal Development Company (GDC) (KES1.2 billion), and the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA) (KES82.9 million). The dues of the former three companies pertain to works done by contractors, budgetary constraints, litigation and wayleave compensation, and that of NuPEA pertains to conferences and project funding constraints. In the report, the committee recommended the prioritisation of payments, specifically emphasising compensations owed for wayleaves to individuals and those pending for more than four years, with a deadline set for February 28, 2024.