Kenyan electricity industry reforms : issues, impacts and approaches
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2007
Closed Access
Filename | Description | Size | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
01Front.pdf | contents and abstract | 1.06 MB | |||
02Whole.pdf | thesis | 33.3 MB |
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NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. ----- The Kenyan government, in recognition of the importance of electricity for economic
development, has accorded a high priority to electricity development. For example, the
government invested about US$ 212 million in the power sector over the period 1971-1988.
Notwithstanding these investments, the Kenyan electricity supply industry has been known
to perform poorly. For example, over the period 1983-1996, power shortages were
widespread, totalling 33,000 per annum and returns on investment were very poor. There
were delays in power project implementation, with subsequent unmet demand of over
200GW, which cost the country substantial loss of revenue, through the use of expensive
alternative forms of energy. The transmission and distribution losses were high, averaging
over 20% of net generation, and only about 40% of the population had access to electricity.
Policy makers have traditionally attributed such poor performance to technical and
administrative shortcomings in the industry. This research has however demonstrated that
the causes of poor performance are to be found in the structural flaws of the electricity
supply industry. These, in tum, are due to a set of several inter-related and mutually
reinforcing influences arising from the country's colonial past and post-independence
culture of over-reliance on foreign aid, and lack of coherent policy vision. Further, this
research revealed that the contemporary electricity market reform was undertaken largely
under pressures from multilateral financial institutions; it lacks the necessary political
commitment from the Kenyan government. Hence it is incapable of meaningfully
addressing the real causes of industry's poor performance. This research has proposed an
alternative reform approach that is aligned with the socio-political environment in Kenya. It
should therefore provide a satisfactory redress to some of the major causes of poor industry
performance.
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