Parliament has asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, to investigate Energy ministry officials, who blocked electricity generator KenGen from connecting Sh.79.3 billion geothermal wells to the national grid.
This is after it emerged that KenGen incurred billions of shillings in the drilling of wells for geothermal power, which have remained unutilized for the past seven years.
The committee now wants the EACC to investigate why KenGen is yet to connect the wells to the national grid as the government pays for the loans of $382.5 million and interest.
“The committee recommends that the EACC [Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission] investigates the circumstances under which KenGen was denied approvals to connect ready wells to the national grid,” the National Assembly Public Investments Committee, chaired by Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir, said in a report to the House.
A report by the National Assembly Public Investments Committee says, the wells were drilled between 2011 and 2015 and have never been connected to any plant for the generation of power.
“Though management indicated that it had requested the Cabinet Secretary for Energy for authority to utilize the wells even after the matter was raised in KenGen’s annual general meeting (AGM) of January 6, 2022, such approval has not been granted to date. It was not clear why the Cabinet Secretary had inordinately failed to grant the requested approval,” the committee said.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu had flagged the matter, saying there was no value for money obtained on the investment of Sh79,324,783,562 in the drilling of the wells.
During the scrutiny of KenGen’s financial statements, Rebecca Miano, the managing director, told MPs that the government initiated a plan to identify new generation and supply sources to ensure that the national electric power supply exceeds 5000MW in 40 months.
“It was expected that 16 wells would be connected to Olkaria I Unit 6 by end of 2022. The balance, including internally funded wells, remains allocated to our project pipeline comprising Olkaria VI (34 wells), Modular Power Plant (10 wells), Wellhead Leasing (16 wells) and Olkaria VII (9 wells),” Ms Miano told the committee.
“These costs were incurred to ensure there was sufficient steam supply to support the geothermal project pipeline. All the wells drilled were allocated to planned power plant projects either as production or reinjection wells.”
She said on commissioning of the project, the cost of wells connected to the same will be recovered
Ms Miano told lawmakers that all wells would be utilised as either production or reinjection and none will be lost.