CS Chirchir confirms KETRACO has received a proposal from Adani Group

Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has confirmed that Indian conglomerate Adani Group has also presented a proposal to the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) which could see it take over a few power lines.

This comes even as Adani has come under heavy criticism in Kenya in recent times due to its proposal to take over the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for a period of 30 years, during which they would exclusively develop and operate it.

The alleged deal between Adani and KETRACO was revealed by Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka during a committee grilling session of CS Chirchir on Thursday.

“Adani has been given contractual arrangements for them to supply power in Kenya through KETRACO, and they are intending to take over KenGen and they will be the one running the insurance system for our healthcare SHIF,” claimed Onyonka.

CS Chirchir, who is the immediate former Energy minister, has now come out to disclose that Adani has indeed expressed interest to operate the Gilgil-Thika-Malaa electricity line under KETRACO.

He however noted that it is not a done deal yet, as the proposal is still being evaluated and taken through a 20-stage due process before anything concrete comes out of it.

The CS further went ahead to note that there exist hundreds of such Public Private Proposals (PPPs) within various areas of the energy sector including generation and transmission.

“It (Adani) could be one of the proposals, because there are several PPP proposals in energy today. In generation alone, there are over 150 proposals by different companies,” he stated.

Upon being asked by show host Sam Gituku to directly state if Adani has indeed presented a proposal, he stated: “I think there is one line between Gilgil-Thika-Malaa that is still going through the due process.”