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Expanding mini-grids during Covid-19 – Experiences from Kalobeyei
Overview [Draft]
In the Kalobeyei Settlement and host community town, ESDS Kenya supported the Covid-19 response measures of the local authorities by connecting facilities to the two existing mini-grids. In total, 3 health facilities, providing medical serivces to refugees and host community, 4 schools, earmarked as isolation centers, and one horticultural farm run by WFP which sustains the food supply, were connected to the mini-grids. While these measures serve as immediate contribution to efforts to contain the pandemic, they also improve the energy services in Kakuma long-term wise and align with the broader objective of ESDS.
Article
The Kakuma Refugee Camp and the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, located in Turkana County at the north-western border of Kenya, currently host close to 200,000 refugees from Eastern and Central Africa. Albeit donors and humanitarian organizations installed mini-grids and the nearby Kakuma town is connected to a sub-station of the national grid, only 5% of households in the camps had reliable access to electricity in 2019 according to UNHCR, while many systems, including the sub-station, run on diesel-Generators.
