Mkuranga, Kibiti closer to accessing reliable power

Coast. Residents of Mkuranga, Kibiti and Rufiji-Ikwiriri must be smiling gleefully following the launch of a 132 kilowatt (kW) project by the Rural Energy Agency (REA).

The project, which would benefit hundreds of households, was launched by the minister for Energy, Dr Medard Kalemani on Thursday after visiting the site to assess its progress.

The residents from those the aforementioned areas have been relying on power generated from diesel from Somanga Fungu. It was, however, insufficient.

The minister directed the Rufiji and Kibiti Tanesco manager, Mr Basilias Kayombo to post Tanesco agents in all 49 villages with a view to easing the process of accessing power service.

“It only costs Sh27,000 to get electricity from the REA project, therefore, to make things easy you must place Tanesco agents in all 49 villages to help them cut transport costs to the district offices,” he said Dr Kalemani.

For his part, village chairperson of Kinyanya-Kibiti Abdala Mbwana raised a concern to the minister that there were not enough poles to for all villages to access electricity.

“We have received only 42 poles out of the promised 60 poles. These aren’t enough to serve all earmarked villages,” said Mr Mbwana.

In his response, Dr Kalemani said distribution of the poles and other tools such as transformers and wires was in progress and that they would soon have everything as promised.