In an effort to improve supply and reduce the cost of electricity, the Kenyan government has announced a major investment in a transmission line to link the the national grid from Nairobi to the Southern African electricty pool through the Tanzanian national grid.

The first leg of the project link will consist of a interconnector between Tanzania and Kenya spanning a distance of 260km at a voltage of 330Kv, This will link the kenya national grid from Nairobi to the Tanzanian national grid at Arusha. The second leg of the project will be an interconnector from Singinda through Mbeya, both in Tanzania to the SAPP at Serenje in Zambia this will also be a 330kV line spanning 700km.

Long suffering Kenyan consumer will hope this will mark a turn-around in electricity supply in the country which has of recent been bedevilled by power outages in recent years.

The SAPP was created in 1995 by electricity utilities in 12 countries of the SADC region to pool their electricity-supply resources to minimize costs and maintain reliability. Members of the SAPP are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.