Kenya Power to Resume Purchase of Kerosene Generated Power from KenGen

Kenya Power will reopen its energy purchase agreement with Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) to reflect the shift to kerosene generated power at a plant in western Kenya. KenGen is now using kerosene at its Muhoroni plant, which ran on diesel provided by independent producer Aggreko. The move is supposedly intended to make cheaper power generated from the plant. However, an analysis by The East African shows that kerosene-generated power is more expensive than diesel-generated power by $0.05.

Equities

Market activity improved significantly today despite a slight drop of two indices. The NSE 20 Share index decreased from 3555.18 points previously to 3522.98 points while the NASI gained marginally to 137.65 points from 137.36 points before.

The NSE 25 Share index lost 19.39 points to close the day at 3837.20 points. Total Shareholder’s wealth declined a tad to settle at KES 1979.222 from KES 1988.634 points before while equity turnover jumped to KES 1.17 billion from KES 0.29 billion yesterday on account of a considerable increase in volumes traded.

Currencies

The Kenya shilling weakened slightly to a mean of KES 101.48 from an average of KES 101.38 against the US dollar on Tuesday as a result of reduced dollar inflows from Non-Governmental Organizations and exporters. The local currency gained against the Euro and the Sterling after a few weeks of battering following the Brexit vote and the subsequent entry of a new Prime Minister.

The shilling is likely to stabilize further against its major international peers in the short-term supported by probable interventions by the Central Bank to prevent the shilling’s slide.