Kenya missed to connect nearly 1.28 million homes and businesses to electricity in the three years through June 2020, largely blamed on budget cuts, shortage of poles and sluggish tax exemption approval.

The Energy Ministry says Kenya Power and Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (Rerec) connected 1,522,858 customers to the national grid in the three-year period, a 45.61 percent shortfall over the 2.8 million goal.

“Underachievement was due to budget cuts, delays in processing tax exemptions and clearance of materials at the port (of Mombasa), government ban on logging, litigations, Covid-19 containment measures, among others,” the ministry says in a progress report published by the Treasury.

Read more: Business Daily