The energy projects facility was taken during the disputed 2017 presidential elections REREC Chief Executive Officer Rose Mkalama and Project Manager Francis Mutua when they appeared before the Senate committee on energy. /JACKTONE LAWI A $150 million (Sh20 billion) World Bank loan signed during Kenya's disputed 2017 presidential election has come under Senate scrutiny after it emerged that nearly Sh9.5 billion could remain undrawn almost a decade later.
The loan taken under the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP) was meant to provide thousands of households in off-grid areas with electricity. Signed at the height of Kenya's disputed 2017 presidential election, a probe has exposed how the facility remains undrawn while thousands of households in off-grid areas continue to wait for electricity.
The Senate Energy Committee on Tuesday turned its attention to the KOSAP project, grilling officials from the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation over delays in implementing the World Bank-funded programme. The committee questioned the timing of the loan agreement, signed on September 5, 2017, just days after the Supreme Court nullified the presidential election, with lawmakers demanding to know who authorised the borrowing during the political transition.
Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang' led the attack, describing the circumstances surrounding the borrowing as "messy" and calling for the Energy Cabinet Secretary to explain why the government rushed to commit Kenya to the loan. "How do you sign a Sh20 billion loan on September 5, 2017, when the country had no settled presidential mandate?
What was the urgency? Who signed it and why?" Kajwang' posed. He warned that if the Energy Ministry failed to provide satisfactory answers, the matter should be escalated to Parliament's accountability committees. The grilling followed concerns raised by the Auditor-General indicating that even if the current budget is fully utilised, only about 53 per cent of the World Bank credit will have been absorbed by the project's September 2026 closing date, leaving nearly Sh9.5 billion undrawn.
The World Bank project was intended to expand access to electricity and clean water in 14 underserved counties.