MEP in Transistion

The MEP crew clockwise from the back left: Robert "Trainee" Mwangi, Anna the MEP Posho Mil cashier, Issac "Juniya" Mukinya, Robert "Engineiya" Nderitu, "Andrea" Mills, and Joseph Kulia

In the past three or so months, many developments have changed the direction of the electrification project in Mpeketoni. When MEP first went to the Ministry of Energy (MoE) in 2004 they went to lobby for the government to take over the project so that the community would no longer be forced to pay such high rates for their electricity. The MoE categorically rejected their request, indicating that it was in fact trying to absolve its responsibility of operating the existing government isolated power systems (IPS), such as the diesel power gird in the nearby town of Lamu. At Lamu the generation costs are almost as high as they are at Mpeketoni, but the cost of fuel is spread to all grid customers in Kenya rather than just the Lamu customers. The arrangement is good for Lamu because they get electcity at the same rate as the rest of the country, but it is bad for other customers that have to cover the high cost of Lamu power in their own power bills. Instead of the MoE taking over MEP, which would further increase the cost of electricity for the country, the MoE agreed to a one time donation of two new generators to the project.
MEP would still operate the generators under full cost recovery meaning that the true cost of producing electricity would be directly reflected in MEP customer rates. Full cost recovery is great for economic efficiency – MEP customers make decisions on which types of appliances and the duration of use based on the cost of generating the electricity they use – but it is bad for local economic development and Mpeketoni customers’ pocket books. Efficient operation of the generators and best businesses practices for managing the generators was one of the main concerns of the Board of the MEP project.

Robert "Trainee" getting ready for rationing and "Seniya" the MEP manager.

However, at the end of November 2006 the MoE flipped its position and decided to retain ownership and responsibility for the generators. A major reason for the flip, it is now becoming clear, is that 2007 is an election year – no time for economic efficiency when your primary concern is spending money to get votes. The MoE indicated that there were funds to take over the generators but that they would not extend the grid past Mpeketoni township. MEP, with the help of Energy for Sustainable Development staff, positioned itself to remain a distributor of electricity. MEP would purchase power in bulk from the generators and resell it to customers over its existing grid system. It was planned that MEP could finance grid extension to the trading centers within a 6km radius of Mpeketoni by adding a small margin between the wholesale and retail rate of electricity.
More changes happened in January when the government suddenly changed the design specifications for the high voltage power lines from 11kV – which can transmit power for 20 km – to 33kV without any explanation. A bit of snooping around lead to the realization that the government planned to extend a line from Mpeketoni town to the town of of Witu over 40km away to fulfill a presidential promise. Rumors started to fly around Mpeketoni that the government had funds for electrification of the centers around Mpeketoni but that MEP was blocking it from building the lines because it wanted to remain a “middle man” between the government and the community.
We pounded visiting engineers from the national grid company (Kenya Power and Lighting Company or KPLC) with questions about the exact status of the project trying to understand the developments and dispel rumors. I managed to get a full day with the engineers when they invited me to go with them to a nearby island called Patte Island. They were surveying four small Swahili villages that had each bought their own generators but had no lines to distribute the power. During the day it became clear that the engineers from KPLC were partly to blame for the rumors about MEP acting maliciously and trying to block them from distributing power.

Robert climbing the suport of one of the older and more worn out poles in town.

Events began to unfold very quickly as members of the community began passing around petitions to make sure that the government take over the entire project there was even talk of demonstrations against MEP. The Board reacted quickly by sending a team to Nairobi to meet with the MoE and the head engineer of isolated power system from KPLC. Luckily as all of the events were unfolding in Mpeketoni a technician from Mombasa had finally figured out a solution to our problem of the rotor overheating on one of the small generators. Once the overheating problem was solved we successfully synchronized the two generators and brought to an end four months of power rationing. Stable power supply went a long way toward calming down the town. When the team returned from Nairobi we learned that the MoE had agreed to finance extension of the grid from Mpeketoni to six other nearby trading centers in Lake Kenyatta Settlement Scheme. With that promise, the MEP Board agreed it has no need to remain involved in the generation and distribution of electricity once the new lines and generators are complete.
Last week the Board called a special general shareholders assembly to inform the shareholders (the majority of which are also electricity consumers) of the status of the electrification project. The shareholders meeting had one of the highest attendances in the history of the project. It was complete with politicians, rampant accusations of corruption, fiery speeches, and good humor. Somehow the shareholders have the idea that the Board turned down an offer for KPLC to buy out the project for 4 million KSh instead opting for MEP to freely hand the project to KPLC in return for 2 million KSh under the table to the Board members. A special committee was elected to look into the accusations. Unfortunately, only one person in the meeting was inclined to support the idea of MEP remaining together as an organization to purse other business ventures after the new generators come online. The rest sounded like they want to liquidate all of the assets and divide up the cash between the shareholders.

The MEP staff in front of the generator sheds

The potential dissolution of MEP adds quite a bit of uncertainty to the futures of the MEP staff. KPLC will not simply absorb the staff of MEP into their oprations. In fact the technician positions for the Mpeketoni Power Station were advertised at the same time as many other technician positions nation wide. The competition will be very stiff for the MPE technicians, but the head engineer of IPS from KPLC has taken their applications direct to the panel that is responsible for hiring. Hopefully they will have a good chance of getting the jobs. If they do manage to land the positions, their pay will quadruple and their workload will decrease. Not bad.
Unfortunately, the MEP manager will most likely not be hired by KPLC. He is an accountant but KPLC does all of its accounting centrally in Nairobi. He is overqualified to simply work as a clerk at the KPLC customer service office that they will set up in Mpeketoni. The best bet for the manager is to start looking for another position or push the shareholders to stick together and form a new venture to provide for other needs of the community. Right now we are working on proposals for a solar business that would charge a flat monthly fee to install and maintain a solar home system on homes that will remain far from the grid network. Longer term there is the possibility of MEP using its experience in agro-processing and its diesel fuel tanks to become a supplier of bio-diesel. The trouble with these proposals is that the outlook is quite long term and MEP is focused on trying to survive until the new generators are scheduled to come online at the end of June.

Rural electrification has never looked so fun!

That leaves little uncertainty in my future with MEP. The past few weeks I have been sharing my time between staring to mop up the MEP project and helping with some small-holder farming. My computer broke two weeks ago so I am finding that I am just as productive with a panga (machete) and a jembe (hoe) out on the farms as I am waiting for access to the MEP computer to type up various business proposals. Needless to say I am currently not very productive. The going rate for a day of laboring on the farms is 200 KSh or about $3 along with all the uji (millet porridge) you can handle. I hardly earn my keep even though I only take the uji part of the pay. My former supervisor from Lawrence Berkley National Labs is offering to take me back on as a research associate in the Energy Analysis office if I want to come back earlier than planned. It is a quite tempting offer in the face of rising insecurity in Nairobi with consequently rising police trigger happiness, a widespread outbreak of Rift Valley fever, and the whole Somalia thing. None of which have directly affected me, they are just factors that make it hard to feel comfortable. For the time being, my plan is to keep working on various business proposals, keep up the farming, and enjoy the time in the community. As an Mpeketonian would say: “What else can you do but thank the Lord and keep on surviving!”