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Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has urged Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi to serve the people of Kenya diligently.

The Orange party on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, took to their official X handle to congratulate Wandayi for officially assuming office as Energy and Petroleum CS.

“Congratulations CS ⁦Opiyo Wandayi⁩ for officially assuming your new office today. Now serve the people of Kenya,” ODM stated.

Congratulations CS ⁦@OpiyoWandayi⁩ for officially assuming your new office today. Now serve the people of Kenya. pic.twitter.com/tNcLrddhAC

— The ODM Party (@TheODMparty) August 14, 2024

Wandayi was on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, officially handed over the office of the CS for Energy and Petroleum, by his predecessor Davis Chirchir who was himself appointed to the Ministry of Roads and Transport in President William Ruto’s recent cabinet changes.

Wandayi who previously served as National Assembly Minority Leader and ODM Director of Political Affairs, was forced to resign from his positions following his nomination to the cabinet.

Wandayi’s promise to Kenyans

When he appeared before the National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula-led Parliamentary Committee on Appointments for vetting, Wandayi promised Kenyans to address the issues of power blackouts.

Wandayi said the Western Kenya region is the most affected when it comes to electricity power outages, noting that it will be his priority if he gets approved to assume office.

He stated that he would first have the electricity transmission line to various parts affected with blackouts, relooked.

Wandayi noted that transmission lines with the requisite capacity to evacuate power to the consumers will be put in place.

“I will fast track the development of transmission lines with the requisite capacity to evacuate power and take to the consumers,” he stated.

Wandayi further noted that all the power lines that have not been completed have funding that has been offered by Kenya’s development partners, which will make it easy to fast-track.

Wandayi on cartels

The former Ugunja Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) also promised to deal with the cartels, whom he said have not been allowing the tendering process to proceed to a conclusion.

“Cartels have become so pervasive that they can’t allow a tendering process to proceed to conclusion and awards be made without creating roadblocks. We shall deal with this menace,” Wandayi said.

Wandayi also promised to address the issue of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who have licenses but have failed to utilize their sites, thus starving KenGen with excess capacity to generate more power.

Opiyo Wandayi: Kenya is lucky, it is the sixth largest source of geothermal in the world. However, IPPs with licenses are not utilizing the sites and have kept them for purposes of speculations therefore starving KenGen with excess capacity to generate more power.#K24Siasa pic.twitter.com/VIlBtmRRKp

— K24 TV (@K24Tv) August 3, 2024