Electricity in SSA. Very neurodivergent. Feminist. Survived burnout & now recovering. Made peace with uncertainty. I dislike absolutes. Views are mine. 🦋🇰🇪
Nov 19 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
Now let's talk the economics of rural electrification or electrification in general - the vantage point that any utility operates from. This is a short summary of a very complex topic so I'll put a paper at the end that explains things in more depth for those who want to read.
For starters, let's talk about perception of electricity in Kenya. We demand electricity as a social good - e.g. politicians promise it to people on the campaign trail... "If you elect me, I'll connect you". You can see that in the story of how we ended up at LMCP.
Nov 19 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Let's talk about procurement. The first sign of trouble is World Bank's "buy the cheapest" model. It works if you're buying handkerchiefs but for electricity equipment, that's a disaster. Coz guess what? China and others have figured out how to manufacture different qualities.
The second issue is the structure of the purchase team. Engineers have the least influence. They create the specs and recommend but will not have veto power when it comes to purchase. And even if they did - "phone calls" can be made. Umeguza vitu za mkubwa.
Nov 19 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Say you're a president. During your campaigns, you promised to give every child a laptop. When you get into power, you decide you'll actually try to accomplish that. Two, three meetings in, you realize you're up against a massive problem - schools don't have electricity.
Your laptop project is dead on arrival. Instead of giving up, you tell your people to figure out a solution. A solution is soon found - the school electrification project. The initial idea is to expand the grid but soon, the realities of Kenya lead to solar being added.
Nov 15 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I think you people misunderstand Kenyaness. We are "settle here and keep quiet" people. I've learned that at a professional level - I don't talk about the things I do publicly. Even here, I only talk about the technical content. We are "don't show us" people.
She could very easily have settled without the drama but she's from a culturally talkative group. And Kenyans, including me, felt like she was advertising Kenya to others like her. We don't need more foreigners settling here unless we can get reciprocity with their countries.
Nov 6 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I've been asked about Adani and - show me India's grid and I will point you to the heavily modernized Chinese grid that is the talk of town in the whole world. They've mastered RE integration among other things. So why exactly are we hiring an Indian company again?
Nothing personal but I'd hire the guys who have a track record managing a grid with heavy integration of RE. People who have built the entire grid infrastructure recently. Or the Germans - still the world's engineers though China is catching up. The rest? Mnatudanganya.
Nov 5 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Crazy idea - grid scale batteries but incentivize households to adopt them. 1000 households with 4kW batteries is 4MW - and people will lipa polepole and cover full cost long as there's a payment plan, which can be backed by GoK.
Infrastructure improvements can be made to be able to use the batteries - especially if the pilot is done in Nairobi. The household fixes their reliability issues and KPLC (after upgrading the infrastructure) gets storage on the grid without spending too much.
Aug 7 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Kenya power's electricity cost is cost reflective.
Example 1:
A certain organisation installs poor electricity infrastructure in rural areas and then passes them to KPLC.
KPLC takes out loans to fix that infrastructure. Then that cost gets pushed to you.
We've asked so many times why that organisation exists. Because everything it does can be done by KPLC. And they do all that without 1% of KPLC's engineering capacities.
Every time we ask, it's radio silence. If you want to fix the electricity sector, collapse them back to KPLC.
Jul 7 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Current strategy: Can't use police without international blowback so they've resorted to his last strategy:
Unleash the militia.
Now let me tell you guys something about militia - there's only one way out once they're unleashed: Violence.
That's how 2007/8 slowed down. Retaliatory violence. He knows this - and he knows that that retaliatory violence got them to the negotiation table for nusu mkate.
That's the calculation right now. That if he unleashes the militia, you'll either cower and fear him...
Nov 27, 2024 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I forgot to remind you guys not to take Montelukast. I thought that start of the year warning was enough. Seems I have to do it every 6 months.
Leave that drug alone. Or have someone watch you when you take it. Find alternatives - I've found mast cell stabilizers to be helpful.
And check if the drug you're taking is a dopamine antagonist if you have ADHD. Your doctors will not check - some of them don't even think ADHD is a real thing.
Almost killed me in 2022 - I got heavily depressed for a few days before I realized I was on a dopamine antagonist.
Nov 9, 2024 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Who is this guys you people gave the presidency? Because I have an airport story too - Not KRA.
I'm talking boarding.
My colleague and others were gorced to pay a guy at the check-in 5000 each to board a flight to Uganda, around two weeks ago.
Here goes the story - her flight is at, let's say 6 in the evening. So she arrives at 4 - that's two hours early. As she arrives, she receives a text message saying that the flight is boarding.
She panics.
She gets through security and heads straight to the check-in point.
Dec 12, 2023 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Someone should also mention how a good chunk of lines in a certain county mentioned in this list are illegal - because of some very senior politicians in this and the previous government. And KPLC can do nothing about it - because again politicians.
If you take household consumers from KPLC, you should take the LMCP debts too. Or those should be offloaded on the national government to pay alongside other loans - given that they were debt incurred due to national government policies. Then pay infrastructure costs 😂😂😂
Aug 27, 2023 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
This guy is making laws that impact electrical engineering 😳 I've never seen someone this proud of their own ignorance so let me take a second and explain all these terms to you people, in laymans terms. If you're an engineer reading this, feel free to add your definition.
I'll explain everything with the thermal power plants as a reference point so you understand how important they are to the electrical system. Like I said - there's alternatives like battery energy storage systems but for now what we have is thermal plants so here we go.
May 23, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Qatar Airways delayed my flight by one hour 30 which made me miss my direct flight to my destination in. They changed me to a connecting flight so I arrive at my final destination at 10PM - which now means I'll be travelling for a whole 24 hours by the time I arrive.
I'm already exhausted from the flight from Kenya given the delay. Now add an extra layover in Germany and arrival at 10PM, and I'll be a zombie by then. What have they said or done to say "we're sorry this happened" - nothing. You make people travel for 24 hours then do nothing.
May 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If you're between 20 to 30 and working, I need you to realize that you own this country. You're the people the government is counting on taxing to raise funds for the country. So I need you to start demanding that those funds finance the priorities that matter to you.
One of the priorities we all care about is fast and cheap internet. So ask your government representatives when cheap and affordable fiber optic is coming near you. What they are doing to make laptops affordable for you. The things that help you. Be selfish.
May 21, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
I'm very sorry to our current president. You were handed a country of millenials and Gen Zs as your working population. Sir - you'll have to work hard to explain to us why you want to tax us more. Your agemates are retiring or nearing retirement. Ni sisi ndio tuko.
You can't just make pronouncements on money we work this hard for. Ati uamke uamue - give me 3% of your salary? For what? Why? Ati kujenga nyumba? Ya nani? Kwanini? What we want to hear is job creation stories. Not creating new funds to be looted.
Mar 25, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I don't understand why the US refuses to tax its billionaires. The rest of us are tired of being their collateral damage - Bill Gates has been treating the continent as a playground for his ideas for a while. The rap sheet is likely longer than this.
You need the money. Why not do it? Why let them run rampant with all the extra money they can't finish in 50 lifetimes? Doing horrendous experiments on poor people in the global South with that money. Changing the priorities of governments in the process.
Mar 25, 2023 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
It's designed for use in conditions where proper earthing is done - also known as *definitely not in Kenya*.
Don't use instant showers as a Kenyan unless your electrical wiring was done properly.
Mar 25, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The moment you find yourself in a movement where one of the figureheads is a child of apartheid with a recorded history of segregating Black people in his companies - I don't think the question is *if eugenics and racism are involved*. There's no question.
I think I just realized that engineers have egos 💀 I could have sworn that's a lawyer thing - right until a colleague pointed out that the toxicity in my former office is likely due to engineering egos. And you know what? True - and I'm part of the problem 😬
Person: There's this thing in solar - might you know it?
Me: *Gets offended* I'm an electrical engineer specializing in solar. What do you think?
It's so automatic that I never stop to think: Wait, why am I getting offended? It's something lots of engineers do.
Feb 5, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Autistics don't "think in patterns". We "think in systems". I'm watching this online course on complex systems and on *emergence* - I was like "but that's how I think". You know - small things stacking up to become big things. Can't believe we don't all think like that 💀
It reminds me of the thing people here call "manifesting". Think about what you want then take steps towards achieving it. At the beginning, progress is slow then at a certain inflection point, progress becomes rapid before a plateau is achieved - an exponential curve.
