Turkana Wind Power probe: MPs summon former Energy CS Charles Keter

The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee plans to summon former Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter and his former Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge to explain what they know about the Lake Turkana Wind Power project that has left electricity consumers with a six-year burden of paying for power they never utilised.

This comes as the committee’s bid to extract answers from the current Kenya Power management ended in futility as the officials could not explain how basic contracts were arrived at.

Barely a week since he left Cabinet for politics, former Devolution CS Keter is a wanted man by parliamentarians over queries about his leadership while at the Energy ministry.

Members of parliament learnt that the deal to have the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project was reached without a feasibility study by the government, with documents showing that it was the responsibility of the private company to do so.

The MPs were concerned that Kenya Power had no role even in drafting of the Power Purchase Agreement, the acting CEO at pains to explain why.

“I have not explicitly met a documentation to confirm who drafted the contract,” said acting MD Rosemary Oduor.

And when the agreement was ultimately signed, it was by then Kenya Power MD Eng. Joseph Njoroge who later became Energy CS and another Director at Kenya Power: MPs bothered why no legal officer witnessed the signing.

During the implementation of the power project, Kenya Power needed an independent engineer to inspect it and report back on quality of works.

Ironically though, the independent engineer was recruited by the implementing company with the approval of Kenya Power.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power plant with a capacity of 300 megawarts of electricity was completed in January 2017.

It was not until September 2018 that the transmission infrastructure was separately completed allowing for evacuation of the power.

Due to the delay, the government now has to pay up to Ksh.16 billion for Deemed Generated Energy. Of this, Ksh.10 billion has since been passed to electricity consumers to be recovered from power bills from June 2018 until May 2024.

More than a year later, the government is yet to be paid over Ksh.700 million it paid in excess to the Lake Turkana Wind Power limited after providing incomplete bank details.