Ruto Directs CS Wandayi To Have Cooking Gas In All Schools Countrywide
Ruto expressed confidence that CS Wandayi and his team will see to it that his ambition of ensuring that all schools have cooking gas is realised.
Viral Tea Ke Writer 
President William Ruto has instructed the Ministry of Energy led by Cabinet Secretary (CS) Opiyo Wandayi to see to it that cooking gas is put in place in all schools across the country.
The Head of State affirmed that the government cannot achieve its goal of planting 15 billion trees by 2032 if homesteads and schools continue cutting down trees to prepare meals.
Ruto, who spoke during the commissioning of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Programme for public institutions at Jamhuri High School in Nairobi, expressed confidence that CS Wandayi and his team will see to it that his ambition of ensuring that all schools have cooking gas is realised.
He further extended an invitation to the private sector to work with the government in delivering clean energy to all schools.
Cooking gas cylinders on display. /STANDARD DIGITAL
"I believe that James Opiyo Wandayi and his team at the Ministry of Energy will implement this arrangement to ensure that we have gas in every school in the Republic of Kenya. I would like to state that this project will be implemented in a big way by companies in the private sector. I am inviting the private sector to work with us on this very important project of delivering clean energy to all our schools," Ruto announced.
“This is a project that we are not going to spend so much government money, it is going to be financed by the private sector, as we buy cars from them, they will be required to install all the LPG tanks in our schools and in our private facilities."
He asked the ministry to facilitate a process where the private sector can play its part in ensuring the government rolls out the program in the shortest time possible, and in any case, not more than one year.
“Minister and your team, the children of Kenya in our 11,000 boarding schools around Kenya, TVETs and other institutions now know that in the next one year they will have gas delivered to their schools and we will save on the destruction of our environment, reduce cutting down of trees and improve on the health of those who are busy in our kitchens since they inhale carbon dioxide and suffering from diseases,” he said.
He explained that the program will allow school cooks to deliver on their responsibility to provide schools for students without struggling with charcoal and firewood.
Additionally, Ruto said the program gives a win-win outcome since the country will save on cutting trees have clean energy and save on matters of health, and mentioned that the country will benefit from an accountable mechanism that will allow the government to unlock resources coming from carbon trading.
According to Ruto, the government will be able to monitor that it has moved all schools from other forms of energy to clean gas. “Now we can monitor that we have transitioned all the schools from using biomass, charcoal and firewood into using cleaner forms of energy and that is gas,” he went on.
The government at the same time earmarked 20 public schools for the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Programme before being rolled out to other schools. They include Jamhuri High School, Isiolo Girls High School, St Georges Girls Eldoret, Ogande Girls High School, Thika High School for the Blind, Karatina Girls, Garissa High School, Kipsonoi High School and Barahari Girls High School.
Siala Technical Training Insitute (Rongo), Muranga High School, Immaculate Heart of Mary Luuya Girls School, Eor Ekule Secondary School, Shimo la Tewa High School and Machakos Technical Insitute for the Blind were also listed among the beneficiaries. The government also earmarked St Paul's Igonga High School, Chavakali Boys High School, Chogoria Boys High School, Our Lady of Fatima Secondary School and Kenya National Polytechnic-Kwale Campus.
Through the programme, the schools will receive 2 LPG tanks and 4 (50kg) backup cylinders. Piping, secure tank cages and fire safety equipment will also be distributed to the schools.
On the other hand, it was noted that 10 more schools would be added to the pilot phase by the end of the financial year. Ultimately, 5,000 public institutions will benefit from the programme by 2028.
Additionally, Ruto announced that the government will use the open tender system for procurement of its gas products, a decision set to enable consumers of gas products to access them at cheaper prices.
''Going into the future, we will transition the purchase of gas in Kenya to an open tender mechanism(OTS),'' Ruto announced, adding ''We will have an OTS that is going to support the purchase of gas competitively so that we can get competitive prices and we can leverage on the scale that we have as a country."
