The Attorney General, Justin Muturi, has raised concerns about Kenya Power’s long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent power producers (IPPs), attributing the high cost of electricity to these agreements. Muturi informed the National Assembly’s Energy committee that Kenya Power had not sought legal guidance from the State Law Office when entering into these multi-billion shilling deals. The PPAs were negotiated and signed directly between Kenya Power and the IPPs, without input or advice from the Attorney General’s office.
Furthermore, Muturi emphasized that the Attorney General’s office had neither seen nor possessed copies of these PPAs. He appeared before the Energy committee, led by Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka, to help the committee formulate recommendations regarding the review of these agreements, which are under scrutiny due to the escalating electricity costs.
The committee sought clarification on the legal implications of terminating some of these agreements and explored the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) principle to identify the beneficial owners of power companies registered outside Kenya. However, Muturi clarified that he could not provide a legal opinion at this time because a multi-agency committee, consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Kenya Power, tasked with renegotiating the PPAs, had not completed its work. He urged the committee to request weekly progress reports from the multi-agency team.
Muturi also demanded that Kenya Power present all the PPAs for examination by the committee to dispel claims that terminating these agreements would be costly for the government.
