Back in Nairobi for a Week

I have access to the Internet again! I will be in Nairobi for a week to catch up with the ESD folks. So I will have access to the outside world for a brief period before going back to Mpeketoni. The Internet at the Posta in Mpeketoni went down about two days after I arrived and it hasn't been back up yet :( No worries, I have lots to tell you and will try to fill you in on what I've been up to over the next few days. I'll also try to catch up on old emails. Thanks for the notes! Here are a few more picutres from Mpeketoni. I also added the pictures to the "Karibu Mpeketoni" post.

Shops in Mpeketoni town

The head technician, Robert Nderitu, with the 150 kVA generator. It broke down about a week after I arrived and it has been chaos ever since!

The 57 kVA generatro has been down for repais for nearly a year, but it is almost ready to run again. With two out of three generators down, the technicians have been forced to "ration" power by cutting off power to certain areas during the day and night. It sure hasn't made the customers happy!

Getting Aquatinted with the People of Mpeketoni

Isaac and I began conducting interviews in the community. As part of putting together an expansion plan for the Mpeketoni grid, we will be interviewing current customers regarding the way they use electricity.
The grid expansion plan will serve as a guiding document for connecting areas away from the center of Mpeketoni town. Most of the potential new customers will be residences, farmers, and a few large institutions like schools and churches. Rather than trying to estimate their future demand by asking them how they think they would use electricity if they had it, we will use interviews with people that have had electricity for a few years to predict the new customers future demand.
So far we’ve met with people from the Catholic Church, a few homes and farms close to town, and a few posho mill operators. Posho mills are small electricity or diesel powered mills for grinding corn into a very fine powder called posho. Posho is the basis for ugali – just boil some water, add the posho powder, stir it around for a bit, and violá you have ugali. Sounds pretty good, eh?
The interviews have been very comfortable and have gone quite smoothly. When you enter someone’s yard or approach the door you just yell out “Hodi!” to indicate that you are approaching their home. When they open the door or come to greet you they respond with “Karibu” meaning welcome.
Interviews with the priest and his assistant at the Catholic Church along with one of the small farmer/residences on the outskirts of town have been the most fun. The farmer/residence was a former employee of the GTZ development effort in Mpeketoni who still does some consultancy work with them in Sudan. He told us many stories about GTZ and the history of Mpeketoni and the surrounding settlements along with a short rant about how poorly he feels the electricity project is currently being managed. All that was said before we even started with our questions. We spent close to two hours at his house.
At the church we were invited to have tea with the priest and his assistant. After we finished our questions about the way electricity is used at the church, they responded with their own round of questions about what we were up to. Needles to say, the interview ate up another two hours. The priest and his assistant were quite fun to talk to and managed to convince Isaac and me to attend the church service the next day.
The service was similar to other Catholic services that I’ve attended in the past, apart from being in Swahili. But there were a few things that really stuck out as being different. The most obvious was the singing and music. The priest and the choir gathered outside the front of the church at the beginning of the service. As they proceeded into the center of the church the choir sang stunningly beautiful music accompanied by small hand held percussion instruments. It all sounded much more like what you would expect in a traditional African village rather than a Catholic church. Throughout the service the choir led us in many songs with that same sort of beat and flavor. What a way to lift the spirit!
Isaac ran a bit late to the service so we didn’t manage to meet up before I found a place to sit. Being a visitor in a new place and feeling like I stuck out like a sore thumb, I decided to sit quite discretely in the far back corner. The church was packed with people – quite possibly about 500 attendees. For the most part I was able to keep track of what was going on during the service even though it was all in Swahili. However about two hours into the three hour long service, various people came to the front microphone to make announcements. I wasn’t keeping up with any of it so I zoned out for a bit. I did recognize one of the people that stood at the microphone as being someone that Paul Mutinda had introduced me to a few days back, Eugene. After Eugene talked for about ten minutes, a few of the people sitting around me began to look at me and sort of nod toward the front of the church. As I sat there confused one person leaned over and said, “He’s calling you to the front”. Gasp.
So there I was walking up to the middle of the church in front of 500 people not sure what he wanted. I’m sure Eugene understood the look of terror and confusion on my face because when I got to the front he just said: “The power just went off so the mic isn’t working, you’ll have to speak loudly. Just tell them your name and where you are coming from”. I turned around to face the crowd.

“Jambo”, I softly stuttered.

“JAMBO!” the 500 faces instantly replied back.

I quickly rattled off my name and a very short description of what I’ll be doing with MEP. I made sure to let them all know how hospitable every one has been and to thank them for hosting me in the community. Eugene followed by translating what I had said into Swahili. He then looked at me and asked if there was anything else I would like to add. I looked around and peeped back to him, “Nope”. I added a quick “Asante sana (Thank you very much)” as they clapped and I snuck back to my seat. So much for trying to be discrete!

Isaac met up with me after the church service and invited me to come along with him to the shambani (rural areas). He lives on a ten acre plot with his the middle brother, Paul, but he has half of a ten acre plot the other direction from town that he shares with the oldest brother, Jeff. Isaac wanted to go out to his five acres to see how things had gone with the harvest of corn that he had planted on the five acres. Jeff showed us some of the crops he has been growing and picked a bunch of fresh green peppers and tomatoes for me to take back to the Havanna Guest House. Isaac then took me on a grand tour of the plot to show me where he hopes to build a house for his family near Jeff’s house. He also showed me some of the Mango and cashew nut trees that his parents had planted on the plot nearly 30 years ago. Isaac’s future house site has a great view across the cornfields to the west right where the sun sets.
Before we left, they made sure I was filled up on rice and chicken. They had used the last toothpick while cooking the chicken, so after dinner Isaac sent one of the kids to fetch us a particular type of tree branch that makes a fine substitute for a toothpick. It is also the same plant that can be used to fight off a bout of malaria according to Isaac.
On the way to Jeff’s house we used Isaac’s bike and one of the MEP technician bikes. While we were there though, the MEP technicians needed the bike and Isaac sent one of the kids to take it to town. So after dinner, when it was already almost pitch black, except for the stars, I rode back on the back of Isaac’s bike. Most bike riders, including Isaac, don’t have headlights for the bikes. Along the way we would be a bit surprised as an oncoming biker would weave around our bike, leaving but a few feet to spare. Fortunately, most of the bikes are so beat up that you can’t get going very fast and even a head on collision between bikers wouldn’t cause more than some scratches. Isaac assured me anyway that bike crashes are rare even given the lack of headlights. I’m just glad there aren’t any cars around here.

A Busy Week in Mpeketoni

Things have started off with a bang here in Mpeketoni. The first week has been filled with visitors, sifting through piles of old reports and files, and great conversations. Unfortunately email access is much more limited than I expected – the post office with the computers is only open 8-5pm Monday-Friday with a lunch break from 12:30-2pm. So their open hours are also prime hours for getting work done. When I do find time to sneak out to the post office, the Internet link is often down – they are connected to the Internet via finicky satellite dishes. The good news is that I can write on my computer at home, save emails or journal entries to a memory stick, and then download it onto the computers at the post office.
Oh yeah – one other item of business before I tell you about this week in Mpeketoni: I had to change the service provider for my phone because Safaricom is not available in Mpeketoni, only the rival service called Celtel is available. So my current phone number is now 254-733 99 59 10.

Mpeketoni Electricity Project (MEP)
After a few days, I am starting to feel like I have a rough sketch of MEP and the town of Mpeketoni. Mpeketoni is part of a settlement scheme called the Lake Kenyatta Settlement Scheme 1. Soon after Kenyan independence (1963) the first President of Kenya, Mzee (Elder) Jomo Kenyatta opened up land near the coast to resettlement by people in the more crowded areas “up country”. The land has good soils and ample rainfall, but was untamed bush prior to settlement. The people that came to the Lake Kenyatta Settlement Scheme obtained 10-acre plots of land that they had to clear for farming and establishment of towns. Taming the area included fighting off raiders that would come to steal livestock, fighting off animals like elephants (which tended to trample anything in their path) and fighting off poisonous snakes. Today people still see elephants sometimes in the early morning; there are hippopotamus that swim all day long in Lake Kenyatta (a 2km^2 lake bordering the settlement scheme named after the first president); and the occasional lion crosses the roads. That’s right, they have lions here. Not here as in Africa, here as in Mpeketoni! Paul Mutinda (the secretary of MEP) told me that he has seen a few in his life here, but they avoid humans and quickly run away from the roads when he has seen them on his motorbike. My mom filled me with tips for what to do and not to do when hiking in grizzly bear country from a book called “Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidances”. I’d appreciate it if anyone near a library could let me know if there is a book called “ I Freaking Live in Lion Country and I Don’t Want to Get Eaten”. Thanks.
There are many more settlement schemes in this region, but Mpeketoni seems to be one of the larger and more developed ones. At some point prior to the 1990’s, a German development agency called GTZ (G-T-Zed, as they say here) began a program to assist with the development of the area. The program as a whole is called the German Assisted Settlement Scheme (GASP). GASP provided funds and technical assistance for farming techniques, building roads, provision of drinking water, and business development. The headquarters of GTZ for this region was a compound on the outskirts of Mpeketoni town.
GTZ provided financial assistance to community groups, but not to individuals. So when they helped craftsman and carpenters, for instance, they had to first form an association that could receive funds. One such association of craftsman was called the Jua Kali Association (Jua = Sun, Kali = Hot, referring to the craftsman that used to work in the open air under the hot sun). GTZ helped the Jua Kali Association build a compound of simple workshops on the east end of Mpeketoni town. Once that was completed and the craftsman had a place to do their work, GTZ asked them what else they needed. One of the major requests was for electricity to help them become more productive. GTZ agreed to help build a generator shed and distribution network right next to the Jua Kali workshops.
Community members were asked to help raise money for the project through the purchase of shares in what became the Jua Kali Electricity Project. The project began in 1994 with a 57kVA (about 46 kW or 61hp) generator and a simple electricity distribution network through town at 415 V. As demand grew the generation capacity grew too. First they added a 60 kVA generator that could be synchronized with the 57 kVA generator then they added a 150 kVA generator. They only have the equipment to synchronize the two smaller generators, so they can run any generator on its own or the two small ones together. So while the total generation capacity is 267 kVA (about 214 kW), the highest demand they can meet is 120 kW with the 150 kVA generator.
In collaboration with the GASP, the shareholders of the project operated the generators for the town. GASP provided assistance with training, organizing the record keeping, and evaluating the performance of the project. However in the late 1990’s GASP began taking steps to pull out of the area. I have not found out exactly why they pulled out, but I do know that they have since moved on to an area in Sudan and they have one staff member still in the community who periodically provides community based organization (CBO) training on different topics. I suspect that the plan was to work with the community for a period of time and once they felt the community was up and running smoothly, they would move to the next region.
As GASP began to transition out of the electricity project, the Jua Kali Electricity Project was restructured to be more autonomous. Its operations were separated from the Jua Kali Association and the shareholders were given greater say in the operation of the project. At some point it was renamed the Mpeketoni Electricity Project (MEP) and more recently Mpeketoni Electricity Company (MEC), but most people still refer to it as MEP. In 2004, GASP turned over most of the buildings in the GASP compound to a Lands Office and left only an office for the CBO trainer and a small library.
MEP is on its own right now: it is completely managed and financed by the shareholders from the community. It also means that all costs incurred in generating electricity must be recuperated from the customers. The tariff is set so that the expenditures are almost exactly the same as the income, with no extra income to expand the system or to replace aging equipment. Even though it is operating right on the margins like that the tariff is extremely high compared to the cost of electricity from the grid. The main culprit is increasing diesel prices which were about 30 KSh (KSh = Kenyan Shillings) per liter in 1996 and today hover around 70KShs per liter ($0.42/liter in 1996 to $1/liter today). Right now the tariff for electricity is 30KSh/kWh ($0.42/kWh) which is three to four times what is paid for grid electricity in Kenya and the US. Unfortunately, some customers have withdrawn from the system due to the high costs and the average customer is consuming less electricity. Even with the high tariff there is lots more demand for electricity in the area. The only area that is electrified is right in the town reaching only 4% of the homes in the area. There are a number of potential customers outside the grid area that do without electricity by running their own generators or by doing things by hand.

A Visit from KPLC
Well that brings us up to speed on the situation toady. High tariffs due to diesel costs, thin margins so no cash for major repairs to an aging system, and still lots of people without access to electricity.
Last year the Government of Kenya decided to donate two new generators to MEP to support their efforts in rural electrification. Each generator will have a capacity of 300kVA increasing the capacity of the MEP system from 214kW to 694kW. The Government of Kenya is contracting Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) to carry out the building of a new generation site, purchase and installation of the generators, and connecting the generators to the existing system. KPLC used to be part of the fully government owned and operated power company, but recently the government utility was split into two companies. KPLC is the one that manages the distribution network and the customer side of things, and the other is KenGen which generates power to sell to KPLC. KPLC still has a very political structure, including political appointees within the company.
Last week a chief engineer from KPLC, Mr. Henry Gichungi, came to visit MEP for the first time. He wanted to see the site and the town, as he will be bringing potential bidders for the contract to procure and install the generators to Mpeketoni on September 13. Right off the bat he suggested that KPLC should not only install the generators, but they should also take over the operation. He does not have the authority to make the final decision, it will have to be someone higher up in the company or from the government, but he suggested that it is a distinct possibility. The MEP board was very excited about this possibility. The primary reason is that if KPLC takes over the management of the system, then the customers will then pay the national tariff for electricity, no matter what the cost f generation at Mpeketoni is. At this point it seems that any benefits that might come with the community managing the electricity system are far outweighed be the benefit of having greatly subsidized electricity rates. The board now has to out in writing a request to KPLC to take over management of the system when they install the new generators. The new generators will most likely come online in June 2007, right about the time I get ready to leave, so this next year is going to be a very interesting time to be here!
We all (me, three members of the MEP board, and one technician named Isaac) piled into Mr. Gichungi’s vehicle to show him around Mpeketoni. By the way, there are probably about 15 vehicles in Mpeketoni and 20,000 bikes, so this was my first time getting a tour of the area by car too. Just outside of town is the Lake Kenyatta Water Association (LAKWA) another community run project (setup with GASP) for providing clean water to the town. LAKWA is a bit away from the MEP grid, so it uses its own generators to pump water from boreholes up to a storage tank on a small hill outside of town. The water then is fed by gravity thorough pipes to town.
The LAKWA site is very close to the shores of Lake Kenyatta, so after touring the LAKWA site we went to see the lake. Isaac, the technician, mentioned that he used to come out to the lake quite often when he was younger to swim and fish in the lake. But watch out, he mentioned, there are quite poisonous snakes and hippopotamus in the water. The hippos (kibako in Swhailli) don’t like to be startled and will charge f you sneak up on them. Fortunately the ones we saw swimming in the water were at least 300 ft away.


One of the things that I will be looking into while I am here is the possibility of making biodiesel for the generators to offset the high cost of regular diesel. When walking through town one day I mentioned the idea of biodiesel to an inquisitive agricultural shopkeeper. He said he knew of a plant that he grows on his land that is used to produce a combustible oil. He didn’t know the name of the plant, but he brought a sample for me and Isaac to inspect the next day. Isaac instantly recognized the plant as one that he had growing on his land at home, but he too did not know the name of it. After a bit of discussion and a few phone calls we concluded that the plant that he was showing us is in fact Jatropha curcas L. or Jatropha, a very common plant for biodiesel. The oil that is squeezed out of crushed Jatropha seeds can be burned in diesel engines.
I mentioned the idea of biodiesel to Mr. Gichungi from KPLC and showed him some of the seeds Isaac and I obtained from the shopkeeper. He immediately understood the benefits that could potentially come from producing biodiesel: reduce the cost of diesel for KPLC generators, save on foreign exchange by not having to import as much oil, additional income for rural farmers that plant the trees, and income for processor of the seeds into oil. He was very interested in seeing the actual plant that the seeds came from. Isaac took us to his home outside of Mpeketoni town (shamba are the rural farming areas outside of town in Swahili) to show us the Jatropha tree he had in his yard.
Isaac is only 27 but he is married and has one daughter. He shares the same plot of land with his brother’s family (the brother’s name is Paul). They each have their own small house made of the mud walls but they have metal siding roofs instead of the thatched roofs seen on older homes. His brother’s home has three small solar panels (they are well away from the MEP grid) that supply enough power for watching one or two movies. Isaac has just one small panel for lighting. Their yard was filled with chickens, goats, a small dog or two and about five little kids between the whole family. The land was planted with a variety of different crops like maize, bananas, mangos, and coconuts. After showing us around the plot and inspecting the Jatropha tree, Isaac’s wife brought out a fried egg for each of us along with some tea. I am going to be working very closely with Isaac over the next year, so I hope to make it back to his home a few times.


A visit from the President
At the same time that the engineer from KPLC was in town to visit MEP, Mpeketoni was buzzing with people getting ready for a brief visit by the president of Kenya, President Kibaki. Kibaki came to Mpeketoni to dedicate an upgraded sub-district hospital in Mpeketoni town. The days before his visit and the days after were loaded with people like area health officials, local political figures, and security personnel.
The town was very excited about his visit because he was expected to announce that the Kenyan government would issue title deeds to all of the plots in the settlement schemes. It seems that even though many people had lived on their plot of land for many years, they did not have a legal deed to the land making it difficult to use the land as collateral for loans or to sell the land to others.
Around noon we heard two helicopters head into town and land on one of the soccer fields. Isaac and I left the MEP office and joined the sea of people heading toward the hospital. Mpeketoni town has a population of around 5,000 people, but the total population in the settlement scheme is around 30,000 people. I wouldn’t be surprised if every single one of them were there on the hospital grounds. The place was packed!
As we listened to the military band from Lamu play tunes and a group of Kenyan singers sing a traditional Kenyan song, rain began to fall. The place was quickly turning into a big mud pit, but the show went on. Kibaki followed a number of other speakers that addressed the crowd. It was fun to watch the crowd, but all of the speech was in Swahili so I didn’t catch much. After his 15-minute speech, he left the hospital to have lunch with community leaders – including some members of the board of MEP (I didn’t get to go unfortunately!)

While I didn’t get to meet the president, did manage to have breakfast with a few of the Consulars from the area – most of them were from the islands around Lamu. A few of the island communities are set to have generators donated to them through a Kenyan government fund called the Community Development Fund (CDF). The communities have councils in place to oversee the development of the micro-grids on the islands, but it sounds like they are lacking in experience with micro-grids. One of the Consulars, Consular Omari Famu mentioned that they might be able to arrange to have me go out to the islands for a few days to tour the systems and give a seminar on community run micro-grids. Let’s hope that works out! The islands around here sound very nice and they would cover the cost of transport.