frequently asked questions

The Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) is a body corporate established under section 43 of the Energy Act 2019 and the successor to the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) which was established under section 66 of the Energy Act, 2006 that is now repealed.
In March, 2019 the Energy Bill (National Assembly Bill No. 50 of 2017) received Presidential assent and became an Act of Parliament that is, the Energy Act, 2019.
Consequently, Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) was established as the successor of the Rural Electrification Corporation (REA). Under the new dispensation, the Corporation has an expanded mandate of spearheading Kenya’s renewable energy drive, in addition to implementing rural electrification projects.

Under the new dispensation, REREC has an expanded mandate of spearheading Kenya’s renewable energy drive, in addition to implementing rural electrification projects. Under section 44(1) of the Energy Act 2019

Vision: A green energy driven nation
Mission: To provide sustainable energy solutions for all through rural electrification and renewable energy for social economic transformation
Value Statement:
“Green energy, better lives”
Core Values
a) Customer focus:  We will continuously endeavor to understand and take care of our customer’s specified needs and expectations by providing services that effectively address them.
b) Team Work: Our staff shall work together, communicate openly and respect each other.
c) Fulfillment: We shall provide an enabling environment that fosters talent development and provides delight in work.
d) Quality and Excellence: – We shall set and achieve high standards in everything we do while ensuring safety first.
e) Integrity: The Corporation is committed to doing the right thing.
f) Transparency and Accountability: The Corporation shall consistently disclose its actions and remain responsible.
g) Environment consciousness: We shall be conscious about environmental and social sustainability issues in its operations.
h) Professionalism: we shall perform our duties in a professional manner and always seek to continuously improve as required by the respective professional standards.
i) Innovation: We shall adopt new ideas, more-effective devices or processes to attain better solutions that meet new requirements and unarticulated needs through more-effective products, processes, services, technologies, or business models that are readily available.

REREC enables people currently living without electricity in rural areas to gain access to clean, affordable, quality lighting and other energy solutions. REREC also connects households, public and community institutions, enterprises and community facilities that cannot access electricity through the national grid and whose use of electricity will replace kerosene, firewood and other fuels for domestic purposes. That is why this tree planting exercise is very important for us.

The two organizations have distinct mandates that complement each other. RERECs’ mandate is to accelerate the pace of rural electrification in order to promote sustainable socio-economic development. The projects are then inspected and commissioned jointly with Kenya Power who then undertake the metering, billing and management and maintenance of the infrastructure.

RERECs involvement in Renewable Energy is guided by the Energy Act 2019. The Corporations mandate therefore includes but not limited to;
a) Source funds for renewable energy projects
b) Develop and update the renewable energy master plan
c) Support the establishment of energy centers in the counties;
d) Undertake on-farm and on station demonstration of wood-fuel species, seedling production and management; undertake feasibility studies and maintain data with view to availing the same to developers of renewable energy resources;
e) Develop, promote and manage in collaboration with other agencies, the use of renewable energy and technologies, including but not limited to biomass (biodiesel, bio-ethanol, charcoal, fuel-wood, biogas) municipal waste, solar, wind, tidal waves, small hydropower and co-generation but excluding geothermal;
f) Formulate a national strategy for coordinating research in renewable energy.

For standalone systems (Wind and solar) REREC connects public institutions like schools, dispensaries and boreholes. If the customer is within the range on a mini-grid he/she will be connected the normal way through KPLC after REREC has done service cable up to the customer.
Clean energy solutions can be accessed at 16 energy centres across the country, REREC intends to develop this energy centre in all 47 counties to improve accessibility.

A Wayleave Agreement is a formal agreement or consent made between the land owner and REREC to allow us to use the land to run cables, or to place equipment or poles or even pylons. Electricity is one of the critical eneblers of social economic development and people living in areaas that have been electrified have benefited enormously.

Over the years, the Government through the Ministry of Energy has been funding the rural electrification program. This has benefited communities in the areas of education, health, entrepreneurship, employment, communication, housing and agricultural development.
a) Education: For schools, electrification has resulted in the uptake of ICT and use of modern learning methods, thereby improving the competitiveness of rural schools in attracting qualified teachers as well as improving their performance. These schools are now able to undertake longer study hours and also provide boarding facilities for their pupils. Overall, electrification has enhanced the quality of education in rural schools.

b) Health: Electrification of health facilities has enabled improved health care as facilities can now be fitted with modern equipment and can operate for longer hours. This also brings health services closer to the people because they will no longer have to walk long distances to access health care.

c) Employment: Availability of electricity in rural trading centres has empowered the rural populace, enabling growth of income generating activities such as the Jua kali sector and providing employment opportunities. These lead to financial empowerment and reduction in rural urban migration.

d) Connected households: Rural electrification has improved standards of living among connected households. This has also enhanced communication through improved information flow and use of modern equipment.

e) Agriculture: Rural electrification has enabled mechanized farming methods for improved food security. This includes implementation of crop irrigation, milk cooling and processing centers, coffee and tea buying centers amongst others.

f) Enhanced Security: In electrified areas there has been a marked improvement of security especially in market centres and informal settlements where street lighting and high light masts have been installed.

The DLP programme is executed through a multi stakeholder approach led by the Ministry ICT. REREC supports DLP through electrification of primary schools. We at REREC are glad to be part of the technology and Infrastructure team which helps to identify, acquire and set up the equipment for the programme including power connection.

The mandate of REREC is to enhance rural electrification by connecting public facilities including schools market centres and community water projects such as boreholes and water pumps.
If there is a public facility within your vicinity and your premise is within the 600 meters’ radius, then you stand to benefit after the facility has been identified and planned for electrification subject to availability of funds.
REREC is also undertaking jointly with Members of Parliament (MPs) the transformer maximization project which is benefiting customers within the 600 meters’ radius.

Electrification of Villages and other Public Facilities is a continuous activity in REREC. Projects are identified and planned for electrification subject to availability of funds.

For projects requiring extension of medium voltage lines or where medium voltage lines already exist, REREC does provide transformers then undertakes low voltage reticulation to the load centres.

REREC is responsible for the maintenance of the transformer during the defects liability period. However, after expiry of 6 months (defects liability period) KPLC takes over responsibility of the transformer.

There could be many reasons why the transformer has not served you;
a) The transformer may have failed but the failure was never reported to either REREC or KPLC depending on which organization was responsible for the transformer.
b) The transformer may have been vandalized hence faulty
c) The transformer may have been disconnected for safety reasons
d) The transformer may have manufacturers’ defects.
For this, we advise you to contact REREC through various channels of communication. You can call through telephone 0709193000 or 0709193600

You can also write a letter to;
The Chief Executive Officer
Rural Electrification & Renewable Energy Corporation,
Kawi House,South C
P. O. Box 34585 – 00100
Nairobi
info@rerec.co.ke

The mandate of REREC is to accelerate the pace of rural by construction of distribution lines in rural areas. Once completed they are handed over to Kenya Power for metering, billing and maintenance. The mandate of REREC therefore does not include installation of electricity meters. REREC installs transformers in public facilities and connects by installation of service cable drops to households that have met all the relevant requirements and are within a 600-meter radius from the installed transformer.

If there is a public facility within your vicinity and your premise is within the 600 meters’ radius, then you stand to benefit after the facility has been identified and planned for electrification subject to availability of funds. REREC is also undertaking jointly with Members of Parliament (MPs) the transformer maximization project which is benefiting customers within the 600 meters’ radius.

REREC is fully funded by the tax payer through the National Treasury. We do NOT charge fees for any of our services to the citizens of Kenya.

There are various reasons that may warrant the removal of lines. This may include;
a) Migration of lines to pave way for other infrastructural developments such as roads and other public facilities
b) Illegal connections. To ensure safety of people and property there are processes and procedures that must be followed in the implementation of electrification projects. There are cases of illegal power lines that have been reported in some parts of the country. These lines are therefore removed to ensure safety of citizens.
c) We advise communities that they need to have electricity connected through formal channels of applications to REREC or Kenya Power.

It is the responsibility of REREC to follow-up on projects to completion and commissioning status. We also encourage citizens to report this to REREC for action.

REREC has Contracted Surveyors who are responsible for works in a certain cluster of Constituencies. All Constituencies / Counties / Regions have been allocated Surveyors.

REREC is implementing various projects aimed at ensuring that people of average income have access to electricity. The government has set a target to increase connectivity and attain universal access to electricity by year 2022. To achieve this, electrification of all public facilities and households located within a radius of 600 metres from an existing transformer have been prioritized. Further, new transformer installations on existing grid networks for households’ electricity connection are being undertaken
So far out of the 88,750 identified Public Faculties in the country, 60,934 have since been electrified (68.5%) and the balance of 27,816 forms the focus of REREC in a bid to attain Universal access to electricity by Year 2022.
For citizens living on areas far away from the national grid, solar mini grid project are being implemented. The aim of the project is to provide electricity to off-grid towns using solar mini-grids. Currently the Corporation has implemented 26 such projects in the off-grid counties of Wajir, Turkana, Marsabit, Mandera and Garissa.
The Government is also implementing the last mile connection. For this, citizens are connected for free and then the Kshs 15,000 connection fee is deducted slowly over a period of time from the amount paid for monthly electricity bills. This makes it easy for the citizens.

You may make a request for electrification stating the name of your village or constituency to the Corporation on behalf of your village/public facility for consideration.

The Rural Electrification Master Plan is the main point of reference in selection of projects for implementation of rural electrification in the country. However, you may write to the Corporation on behalf of your village/public facility for consideration. You may also engage and encourage your area MP and County Government to partner with REREC in a ‘shilling for a shilling’ program (Matching Fund). The Matching Fund facility is a programme where the Corporation matches contributions from constituencies and counties to a maximum of Kshs. 5million per constituency for implementation of rural electrification projects

Application for internship positions are done through the public service commission. The commission then does placements for various state corporations including REREC. Please visit the PSC website to view the available opportunities.

Whenever job opportunities are advertised, shortlisting is carried out and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted as is stated in the advertisement. You have to bear with us because it may not be possible to respond to the large number of applications that we receive.

REREC always endeavours to respond to all complaints. The Corporations implements a complaint handling and resolution mechanism that provides quarterly reports to the Commission of Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman