Ketraco has declined to publicly disclose the terms of the agreement for contracts that it signed with India’s Adani Group for the construction of three transmission lines and two substations.
The State-owned company rejected a push by a city law firm, IC Law LLP, to make public details of the financial health of the Adani energy subsidiary, a list of other firms, if any that floated a similar proposal to Ketraco for the project, the findings of recommendations from Kenyans on the deal, and also the legal advice given to Ketraco by the Attorney General’s office on the deal.
Ketraco awarded Adani Energy Solutions— a subsidiary of the Adani Group— the tender to build the 206-kilometre 400 kilovolts (kV) Gilgil-Thika-Malaa-Konza, 95km 220kV Rongai-Keringet-Chemosit and the 70km 132kV Menengai-Olkalou-Rumuruti lines. The Indian firm will also construct a 400/220kV substation at Lessos and the Rongai 132/33kV Thurdibuoro substation in Kisumu.
IC Law LLP wrote to Ketraco on September 11 seeking to have the State-owned firm disclose details of the agreement with Adani Energy Solutions, in a push to lift the lid on the deal, which was signed in secret.
Treasury first revealed that the deal had been signed in an update on the public-private partnership (PPP) projects that Kenya has entered into.
Deals between the government and the Adani Group have come under increased scrutiny following the controversial attempt to ink a 30-year concession lease for Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Under the proposed lease, which has since been halted by the High Court, the Adani Group will expand the airport and build new taxiways, among other critical infrastructure.
“Upon review of your letter, we note that the information requested is currently under consideration and this falls outside the scope of disclosure under Section 4 (1) of the Access to Information Act,” Ketraco Managing Director John Mativo says in the response letter to the law firm.
“We undertake that after due consideration and finalisation of the process, the requested information may be availed (sic).”
IC Law LLP wrote to Ketraco weeks after the Treasury’s disclosures on the deal were made public as the law firm sought to compel the government to disclose details of the agreements with Adani.
“We wish to exercise our right to information held within your organisation, including but not limited to: project agreements, financial capacity of the tendering company, tendering process undertaken and public participation,” the law firm said in its letter to Ketraco.
The Treasury in July revealed that the deal with Adani Energy Solutions had already been signed and that the two were finalising details of the contract.
However, last month Ketraco invited Kenyans for public participation sessions on the deals with Adani Energy Solutions, raising eyebrows on the impact of the discussions given that the contracts had already been awarded.
The deal with Adani Group is one of the PPP projects that Kenya is hinging on to build transmission lines and bridge an infrastructural lag in the power sector, without burdening the exchequer or taking loans.
Aging infrastructure is a major headache facing Kenya’s electricity sector and has been blamed for numerous national power blackouts, but funding woes by the exchequer have increasingly made it difficult for Kenya to finance a revamp of the grid using its revenues.
