The End of Kenya Power's Monopoly

On 8 May 2026 the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), acting under the Energy Act, 2019, gazetted the Energy (Electricity Market, Bulk Supply and Open Access) Regulations, 2026 as Legal Notice No. 79 of 2026. The instrument operationalises a market architecture that has been on the statute book in principle since 2019 but unimplemented in practice. In one stroke it dismantles the single-buyer model under which Kenya Power and Lighting Company Plc (KPLC) has, for more than five decades, been the sole counterparty for every kilowatt-hour produced for the national grid. The commercial consequence is immediate: any consumer with a load of at least 1 MVA on the distribution network or 10 MVA on the transmission network may now contract directly with a licensed generator and wheel the energy across KPLC and KETRACO networks for an EPRA-approved access charge. The legal consequence is more structural: KPLC and KETRACO are now bound, as a matter of regulatory obligation rather than commercial choice, to grant non-discriminatory open access to any eligible market participant.