Ruto’s Chief Advisor David Ndii to Kenyans: We Did Not Promise Cheap Power

The Chairperson of President Ruto’s Council of Economic Advisors David Ndii has told off Kenyans demanding that the government lowers the cost of electricity.

In Twitter comments that have sparked a debate online, Ndii stated that power tariffs will not come down anytime soon, saying Kenyans must choose between expensive electricity available all day or cheaper electricity available for only a few hours a day.

Ndii, who is an economist, further noted that the Kenya Kwanza administration did not pledge cheap electricity in its manifesto.

“On power bills, we have two choices. Costly power is available 24/7, or cheap power is available a few hours a day, like in South Africa. If you cared to peruse our manifesto, you would have noted that cheap power does not feature in our pledges on electricity,” Ndii tweeted.

Ndii insisted that the high cost of electricity was influenced by the aging transmission and distribution network.

In his manifesto dubbed ‘The Plan’, Ruto promised to revamp the transmission and distribution network, accelerate geothermal resources development, and develop a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) storage facility in Mombasa, which he believed would lower the cost of electricity.

“Bringing down the cost here refers to production costs, not tariffs. The listed are heavy medium-term capital investments that will not bring down tariffs anytime soon,” Ndii tweeted.

Electricity prices are expected to increase by 78 percent from April if the energy sector regulator approves new tariffs from Kenya Power that seek to withdraw the monthly subsidy that cushions poor households.

Kenya Power has proposed to reduce the threshold for accessing the monthly power subsidy from 100 kilowatt hours to the proposed 30 units.

The State-run utility company wants to hike the cost of a unit of power for the usage of less than 30 kilowatts per month to Sh28.01 a unit, up from the current KES Sh20.70, reflecting a growth of 35.3%.