Cabinet secretary of Energy and petroleum Opiyo Wandayi convened a fruitful multi-sectoral meeting with the elected leadership of Meru County, the county administration, and senior management from Ministry of Energy agencies, yielding jointly agreed resolutions to accelerate the implementation of the Last Mile Connectivity Programme (LMCP) and strengthen electricity supply to rural areas in Meru County. In a nation where the hum of electricity often fades into silence in rural heartlands, this gathering marks Wandayi as a beacon of pragmatic leadership—not a mere photo-op, but a pivotal blueprint for bridging Meru’s urban-rural divide. With sprawling tea plantations blanketing misty hills, vibrant miraa trade pulsing from khat farms, resilient dairy herds dotting pastures, and horticultural bounty from fertile slopes, Meru has long grappled with inconsistent power that hampers productivity, leaving cooperatives in the dark and families tethered to dim kerosene lamps.
This Meru meeting underscores a thematic triumph: the power of multi-stakeholder synergy in dismantling energy inequities specific to the county’s rugged terrain. Resolutions co-authored by area MPs, ward MCAs, the county executive, and technocrats from Kenya Power and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) foster genuine ownership, ensuring local leaders champion the rollout over familiar obstructions like land disputes or funding wrangles. The LMCP, a cornerstone of President Ruto’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), promises to extend high-voltage lines into remote wards while deploying off-grid solar kits for scattered homesteads, but execution demands the urgency Wandayi injected—targeting hotspots in miraa-growing areas where pickers navigate by torchlight, dairy chilling operations that falter without steady current, and vegetable plots losing crops to unpowered irrigation. Imagine miraa cooperatives firing up dehydrators and packaging nonstop, or tea pluckers powering processing to rush exports—realities hinging on swift pole installations, cleared rights-of-way, and subsidized last-mile connections that make power affordable for the smallest farmer.
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