HOW KENYANS WASTE TIME AND MONEY DUE TO KPLC's BLACKOUTS

The gap between the rich and the poor in Kenya is one of the highest disparities of poverty measurements in the world despite having recorded a steady growth in GDP and Per Capita since 2003 according to UN and CIA Combined List – Income ratios and Gini (1995–present)
On February 18th 2015, The Daily Nation reported that Kenya was ranked as the 6th country with extreme poverty in the Sub-Saharan Africa however there are contradicting reports from the world bank about Kenya's wealth. On 9th Dec. 2016, Business Daily reported that, the World bank has confirmed Kenya as a middle income country. The bank confirmed that the gross national income per capita (GNI) of Kenya, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Tajikistan have now joined the league of lower-middle income countries. Countries in this category have a GNI per capita of more than Sh99,024 but less than Sh390,513. Kenya’s GNI per capita income is about Sh127, 215
As Kenya's economy records significant growth in over a decade, the question whether the common Wanjiku or Wafula are feeling the impact in the grassroots is a dilemma. The number of sky scrappers rising in Nairobi and the magnitude of luxurious fuel guzzlers on Nairobi roads is a show that a good number of people have stopped living from hands to mouth. On the other side, the informal settlements near western suburbs of Nairobi gives a different meaning; there is much work that needs to be done to uplift millions of people from poverty.

How KPLC contributes to poverty in Kenya

Kenya's monthly outages average to 4.45 hours/day, one of the least outages in Africa but not good enough to beat competitors like Ethiopia [3.88hrs/day], The Asian tigers which encounter natural calamities like tornadoes and storms perennially have a better ranking than Kenya. Malaysia has only 2hrs/day, Indonesia has 2hrs/day and Philippines 1hr/day. Even though KPLC is trying to improve provision electricity to all Kenyans, there is need to find alternatives of supplying  consistent electricity that gives a level playing ground for those people who depend on electricity for a living.

How Kenya's poor are the losers in Power outages

1. They have no capacity to install power backups like their rich counterparts. This gives an advantageous edge to the rich community. In business, competing becomes one-sided
2. Power outages is common in poor settlements than in suburbs. This is where we have a huge number of people with businesses that depend on electricity e.g. Barbers, Salons, Welding, retail services, electronics, computer services, laundering services, cooking etc.
3. Most poor people are not in the network of national power grid, even though 5 million new installments have been anticipated in the last 4 years, much work is still needed to connect energy to at least 80% of homesteads

Suggestions on  how to reduce power outages

1. Devolve production of power to the county level, its easier to work with devolved production units than to depend on one source like Kindaruma or Ol Karia
2. Working on one power post should not necessarily disrupt the entire village, town or region from power supply for the whole day, neither replacing a transformer. KPLC should design jumpers and makeshift mobile transformers to temporarily run as the other is replaced. We are in a world that acknowledges the importance of time.
3. Government's effort to connect more homesteads to the national grid is a journey to the right direction. This dream should be encouraged to realize its full potential by all stakeholders
4. Reduce electricity charging rates. Our businesses cannot compete in world markets if our cost of electricity is one of the highest in the world. This will increase the cost of production thus our exports will be expensive in the world market
5. Employ more solar and wind energy tapping productions and other newer environmental friendly ways of generating power as is already in Naivasha and Ngong

Conclusion

Our country is in a strategic point where it can benefit from the vast resources available for exploitation. We can believe that we can make it happen here, we must reduce poverty and the only way we can do it is to employ a critical thinking strategy as a roadmap to success. We need cheap flowing energy for ourselves and for exports, we need a corruption free environment to do business and most importantly we need intellectually mature people in politics. We need to work together, it’s the only way we can succeed. #COYK [#ComeonyouKenyans]

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