Lake Turkana Wind Power scam: Auditor General wants ex-KPLC boss Njoroge, ex-PS Nyoike probed

The Auditor General wants those who were in charge of the Lake Turkana Wind Power project investigated and those found culpable punished.

The power purchasing agreement between Kenya Power and Lake Turkana Wind Power Limited that saw Kenya incur Ksh.18 billion in penalties for power not used was executed during the reign of the then KPLC Managing Director Engineer Joseph Njoroge and then Energy Permanent Secretary Patrick Nyoike.

This as it emerges that Kenya Power and the Ministry of Energy mandarins ignored warnings from the World Bank.

The government of Kenya had reached out to World Bank to indemnify the project but upon assessing the power purchasing agreement and the scope of the project, the World Bank opted out.

The Auditor General’s report indicates that World Bank warned the large size of the wind power plant could have had an impact on the reliability of systems supply.

With the wind power project expected to produce 300 megawatts of power, World Bank advised Kenya to develop its wind power project gradually in smaller lots of between 50-100 megawatts.

The World Bank also warned against the single sourcing of Lake Turkana Wind Power Limited to carry out the project.

The company initiated the project in 2006 through a project proposal to Kenya Power.

The power utility firm jumped onto the proposal in 2009 with the board ratifying the decision to directly engage Lake Turkana Wind Power Limited without going through the procurement process.

What followed was a dash to approve a decision to have Kenya Power enter into a power purchasing agreement with Lake Turkana Wind Power Limited. Within a record time of one week, KPLC had obtained the green light.

The World Bank was equally skeptical of the pay deal entered in the contract warning that it exposed KPLC to unacceptable high financial risk.

The delay in the construction of transmission lines from Loiyangalani to Suswa that resulted into the Ksh.18 billion penalty had equally been foreseen.

The World Bank quipped the 26-month period as envisaged was too short to realize and that finally Kenya Power lacked the experience in managing dispatch from a large wind power installation into its power system.

Either by design or default, all these red flags were ignored.

The Auditor General now wants a further probe to be carried out to ascertain if there were any acts of omission or commission on the individuals involved in the entire set up of the project and any culpability punished.

The special audit report also wants the Energy ministry and KPLC to be held accountable for not ensuring a competitive process in identifying and implementing the project to ensure fairness, transparency, equity and cost-effectiveness and not conducting an independent legal risk assessment prior to executing of the wind power contract.

Out of the Ksh.18 billion penalty accrued from the delayed evacuation of ready power from Loiyangalani due to the 21 months delay in completion of transmission lines to Suswa, the Ministry of Energy has paid Ksh.10 billion.

The audit report has warned that the balance of Ksh.9 billion will be passed on to consumers by KPLC until the year 2024.