Nairobi, June 10 -- Over the last decade, few locally situated power stations have been onboarded in Kenya. There have been multiple moratoria and investigations on power procurement.

Successive governments in both the Executive and Legislature have been on a wild goose chase for benefactors, ignoring the need to execute plans for new generation capacity.

As happened in the early 2000s, the chickens are back to roost. We are staring at undersupply, load shedding, and emergency power procurement at guaranteed higher costs related to the volatility in fuel prices, including LNG. This crisis is a result of sustained political meddling in planning and onboarding of new power plants.

There is a notion that the power business is lucrative an...