I support the Decision to make Kenya Power a state project

The decision to declare Kenya Power & Lighting Company a state project is timely, because of the interconnection between power charges and pricing and the overall intentions of the nation to attain middle income status by the year 2030. It is through such a move that all that has been wrong with company, which is a monopoly and which is not competing with any other entity on the same line can be reinvigorated and made to deliver as it was planned. Student of project management will agree that project management methods that a country or organization can use to bring the required change, solve inherent challenges, manage scarce resources and achieve important objectives, varies and can change with circumstances. Good project management begins by undertaking a thorough scanning and auditing of the environment, planning, which also involves developing strategies and later implementing such strategies to achieve intended objectives. This should then be taken to mean that by making Kenya Power a state project, we are acknowledging that there has indeed some mismanagement and also the fact that the agency has failed the Principal Agency Relationships Theory (PAT), where it was supposed to perform power supply and stabilization functions on behalf of the state.

Despite the applicable incentives under PAT, the agency didn’t deliver for the principal, who is the government and the people of Kenya. There are many reasons the agency couldn’t deliver the principal’s agenda, key among them being corruption, mismanagement, inappropriate application and tapping into the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which is a good strategy to shore up our power supply, but which must be applied after careful and professional structuring, negotiations, assignment of roles and responsibilities, adequate identification, costing and assignment of risks which determines the rewards or sanctions that come out of the deal. This is where the Theory of Project Management developed by Nutt (1996) comes into play to remedy such a situation. It holds that a responsible agency or government should undertake measures to correct such challenges and hence plan and change the trajectory of the company involved. This is done by creating an enabling environment for change to thrive, and includes employing managerial and technical skills, adequate accountability of funds and also innovative project financing including Public Private Partnerships.