Only in the last decade, population with access to electricity in Kenya approximately doubled. Moreover, Kenya has improved its positions in green energy development, with 90% of its power sourced from renewable materials, primarily from geothermal and hydro powers.

While numbers show great improvement, researchers question whether these figures are accurate. The real situation found out to be quite unstable, with regular blackouts, unaffordable by lower class - electricity costs, and rural areas with high costs of installing electricity cables.

by Zhandos

But having access doesn’t always mean people can use electricity well.

Electricity brings many benefits. It helps with the business, studying, health and communication (charging phone, using internet and etc.) Still poor families struggle to afford it.

Electricity also changes politics. Instead of reducing participation people now engage in new ways, such as using social media.

The big challenge is energy justice. Making sure all Kenya’s can get affordable electricity.

I use scanning and skimming methods.

In this text had written both advantages and disadvantages of having electricity. Main pros of this event are importance of communication, education, and life-time activity. In addition, because of this access it becomes easier voting for political activities. However, it has one big disadvantage access of electricity can be expensive.

Despite of some challenges that Kenya faced, I think it's a good progression of improving country's economics.

The article is about the electricity access in Kenya, its impact on political participation and challenges. The main point is that many citizens struggle with the access to electricity because of the prices, irregular supply and limited abilities. Also it has its own impact even on political participation. People more likely to stay at home when they have electrical technologies there, but increased electricity access doesn’t decrease political participation it only changes the way of political activity. Kenyans use technologies to connect with each other and to be engaged with politics. Some citizens doesn’t have access to electricity so the concept of “Energy justice” is very important, because it gives them many benefits like, education, economic activity and even health.

While the situation with electricity in Kenya is improving every year, some parts of the population still can’t use its benefits.

Access to electricity in Kenya

From year to year topic of the electricity becoming the most important one worldwide, so do in Kenya as well. Via good strategy and development of electricity infrastructure Kenya become one of the most developed countries in Africa in terms of electricity access. Which is shown in figure, as the percentage of the households that have access to electricity changed from 40 to 80% in just 10 years. Also, 90% of the electricity coming from renewable sources, such as hydro and geothermal power. This type of changes are very important, because it has impact over the health and environment. Since households and businesses used to fossil fuel or candles it was hurting people health heavily and fire hazardous.

Despite statistics are strong and showing good results, there are still a lot of problems with “access” to electricity. Kenya is still economically poor and dependent country, so for ordinary citizens it is very expensive to access for electricity grid, which in turn means that they can’t afford installation of electricity. At the moment such problems have sowed discontent and mistrust to politics from citizens across the country.

We can see that electricity access not only about electricity, but also about health, safety, overall economic development and political stability. There was also a discussion about changes in citizen involvement and participation in political activities across the country. In reality, electricity access haven’t changed involvement of citizens, but changed the way of how they can be involved, from local communities to even much larger communities in social networks, which lead the politicians to join social media.

That text was informative.

I couldn't image that people who live in tech era don't have access to electricity, because right now it most important things in our life.

Lets comeback to the text. Even thought Kenya have problems with access to electricity, over decade it double people who could have acces to it, that's really impressive for me.

People use reusable power like thermal or hydro cause that will be more effective, but still there is a problem.

I will skip part were they say that access to electricity could make people stop being social active or political active, because social need to adapt to new norm.

Most problem place in money, even though Kenya could double people who have electricity, they don't mention that light in they room, just stove, or huge house that have a lot of electric device, that use a lot of power. Some people couldn't even afford it that really make me think that there a huge abbys between us.

People deserve to have electricity, not for fun, but for basic human needs, especially nor in tech era where in other countries already invent IA, but in some they still have to use kerosene light to see.

But does it mean that in the reality the acces to this electricity mean the truly “access” of simple citizens? I think no, because as As Dr Christopher Gore explains, “In Kenya, national statistics don’t clearly distinguish between someone with a small solar panel powering a single lightbulb and someone whose house is connected to the grid and who has an electric cooking stove, fridge and TV.”

Yes that’s fact that the majority of people who live in Kenya have the access to the electricity.But the government ignores the quality of their electricity supply.Also the infrastructure doesn’t developed properly to support rural areas with electricity and if it does then it will be very expensive.Not all the people have enough financial resources to pay the bills and cannot afford the expensive credit payments.

To summarise, yes the Kenya has developed a lot in the maintaining of the renewable energy but not all the households takes the full benefit of it properly.

Over the decade, Kenya’s government have reached new level in electricity supply for the households. But, It is only in paperwork. In reality, families are struggling to apply that electricity on their own because of high costs. One thing is to supply, however final product should be accessible for everyone, not only for the marked individuals.

It can be noted that in 10 years there was great increase in electricity access, almost doubled. Actually, for the African country it is great achievement.

I have got an understanding that main source of energy is getting from renewable sources.Even in Kazakhstan, it is not like that.

Main thing that we should consider is electricity grid.  Some houses have it, some of them don’t. Here is great showment of inequality in getting electricity from government.

Maybe, there is competition in supply electricity between companies. Private companies could charge whatever they want.

I doubt about Kenya’s government. Because it is only in documents. Let’s be real CEO of private companies could be in close relationships with head of officials. If that’s so, it is obvious why people are still struggling to get it. I think it is an excuse to say that it is too costly to provide them electricity.

The article describes how access to electricity has increased in Kenya and what changes this has brought to people's lives. In 10 years, the number of connected homes and farms has almost doubled, and the country has begun to actively use renewable energy sources such as geothermal and hydroelectric power. In my opinion, this is a very good indicator, because many people now have electricity, which has given them more opportunities.

However, despite the improvements, many families still face difficulties: electricity is expensive, there are frequent power cuts, and in rural areas it is very difficult to connect to the grid.

Despite all this, having electricity offers important advantages, such as the ability to study in the evening, develop a business, charge phones, and even take care of one's health, as there is no longer a need to use kerosene or firewood. It seems to me that people are not yet accustomed to the changes and have not yet learned to use all the opportunities that the internet and electricity offer, but we can see that they are gradually beginning to improve their daily lives.

Electricity is also changing political life. People have started attending meetings less often, but they are more actively involved in politics through the internet and social networks. I think these are very good changes that increase people's contribution to politics, because with the help of the internet and social networks, they can influence politics from a distance, which not only makes their lives easier, but also increases the number of people who are aware of the political situation in the country.

Article covers the change in access percentage among households and production over the decade, how social and political participation changed. From the article we also get information that Kenya is leading country in Africa in terms of electricity access and sustainable energy. It also highlights strugles that come with achieving acceptable electricity coverage. Main strugles include irregular supply and affordability question.

Main issue of the research is that no standard was applied in determining "access", so quote: “In Kenya, national statistics don’t clearly distinguish between someone with a

small solar panel powering a single lightbulb and someone whose house is connected to the

grid and who has an electric cooking stove, fridge and TV.” We cannot rely on this information too much.

To summarize, access to electricity proves to have positive impact on people in various areas, including but not limited to economics, education, healthcare. But despite government help, such as subsidies, poor households cannot afford reliable electricity access.

According to the research on the impact on social and political activities, they came to the conclusion that access to electricity does not decrease citizens' activity in politics, discarding previous false conclusions.

Considering the locals' thoughts on the impacts of electricity access, "even the poor households have phones that must be charged" says Winnie.

In conclusion, the most challenging part of using electricity is its affordability and the low supply level. Meaning, whilst Kenya made progress, implementation into everyday life became harder.

The most people in Kenya do not have an opportunity to be able to use digital devices and any technologies. The reason for this problem is that the electricity is not shared equally and properly through the country and its citizens. Therefore they have to struggle with problems not only in their houses, but also when they are working, studying, cooking or even trying to become healthier.

It was interesting for me how the electricity influences the way people approach their political and social lives. Although it’s beneficial for you and your family having the ability to use the electricity, it has its own drawbacks as well. As a result of it, you may become less interested in some important aspects of your life. Since people have their phones, tablets, TVs or laptops which are connected to worldwide internet, they start to prefer to stay at house watching celebrities’ lives, going through “urgent” news rather than going out with their family or friends or taking part in crucial political questions.

But the article also explained that Access does not always mean the same thing. Some families only have a small solar panel that only runs one single bulb or charges a phone. Others a fully connected to the national grid where they get to use multiple appliances a day eg, microwaves, fridges, tv and other heavy appliances. Power cuts are also common and many people cannot afford to pay the monthly bills. So basically, even though the numbers look high and there is improvement in Kenya’s electricity, Reliable and affordable electricity is still out of reach for many people.

Having electricity affects almost every part of life. At least I know it affects me personally and it ruins my day. It helps me study at night. It helps people’s business, charge my gadgets and also talking about kerosene… this is the most underrated comment. In Africa when there is no power people rely on kerosene, lamps, very noisy generators from every home, the bad smoke that pollutes the air which makes it hard to sleep or do anything.

Also I do agree with the Dr who said that electricity does not reduce political participation - it changes the way people participate. Instead of going out of the house many people rely on social media to pass their messages, and politicians can even use social media to reach citizens. Information is passed across even more sufficiently in my opinion with electricity in my opinion.

So I would say true progress is not just about the numbers but by making sure it’s reliable across the whole country.

Blossom