1. Cheaper electricity bills in the offing
Kenyans could be set for cheaper electricity bills in the next two months, Kenya Power has announced. The move will be music to the ears of many electricity consumers who are grappling with high power charges.
-Daily Nation
2. Proposal to tax alcoholic drinks based on retail price hits snag
Beer drinkers have something to toast about: A proposed rule to levy excise duty on alcoholic drinks, which would have seen prices go up every three months, has hit a snag.
The rule, proposed by Finance minister Njeru Githae during this year’s Budget, has been termed by the Kenya Revenue Authority as unworkable.
– Daily Nation
3. Kenya plans pipeline to Arusha after oil discovery
Kenya plans to construct a pipeline to supply oil to neighbouring Tanzania once it starts commercial exploitation of reserves recently discovered in Turkana County. Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi said the pipeline would link Nairobi to Arusha, with supplies being pumped from a refinery to be built in Isiolo.
Business Daily
4. Kenya Power to upgrade Juja station
Kenya Power is seeking to reduce electricity blackouts by engaging Finnish firms to upgrade the Juja sub-station. A mishap at the crucial unit last year plunged the whole country into darkness lasting hours. The power distributor has invited “tenders from bidders registered in Finland” to supply and instal equipment at the substation.
-Business Daily
5. Huge bank profits spark fresh effort to curb cost of loans in Kenya
Kenyan banks rode the high interest rates wave to grow their incomes by wide margins – renewing the parliamentarians’ quest to curb the cost of borrowing through legislation.
In the past couple of weeks that companies have been releasing their half-year results, many Kenyans have watched with consternation as banks announced double-digit growth in earnings for the period when their customers felt the greatest pain of borrowing and severe economic hardship.
-Business Daily
6. Kenya’s Bubbly Real Estate Sector Heading For The Rocks?
Real estate had been accounting for more than 5 cent of Kenya’s GDP and had enjoyed a boom in the last decade. However, the last two years brought a slowdown in the sector’s growth as it became progressively ensnared between galloping rises in the prices of land and construction materials, and slowing demand at the top-end of the market – where construction has been concentrated.
-Ventures Africa
7. 18 firms want to explore coal in Kenya
Kenya is evaluating bids from 18 local and international companies which have expressed interest in exploring coal in Mui basin.
Ministry of Energy chief geologist John Omenge said the evaluation will help establish firms to be invited to submit proposals for exploration of coal for generation of cheap power, use by steel plants and cement manufacturers among others.
-The East African
8. ERC to give small hydro power firms special tariff
The Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) is coming up with a tariff structure expected to guide the way hydro power projects intending to use existing Kenya Power lines to transfer excess power to other users will operate.
Technically referred to as power wheeling, which involves independent generators using existing power lines owned by Kenya Power, the system has not been operational due to lack of a tariff structure.
-The Standard