President William Ruto has directed the Ministry of Energy led by Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir to comprehensively deal with the challenge of power failure.

The president who spoke on Wednesday after chairing a Cabinet meeting said frequent power outages were hurting Kenya’s investment profile.

According to a despatch from State House, the Cabinet discussed the matter on power failure, extensively and resolved that the transmission line system should be unbundled so that power failure in one part does not affect the entire country.

To deal with the overloading of transmission lines that cause outages, the Bomet-Narok line will be built with €400 million (Ksh.66 billion) from the African Development Bank.

The line, which was funded in 2016, has not been built due to legal disputes.

Additionally, a €1.2 billion (Ksh.200 billion) KenGen solar power project at the Seven Forks Dam will provide a safeguard against power failure.

The 42MW project has a huge battery storage and when power fails, the stored energy kicks in. It also helps to save hydro-power at the five dams that make up the Seven Forks.

The Cabinet was informed that negotiations on the Kenya-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement have been completed and are expected to be signed next week.

The agreement which gives Kenya more access to the European Union market, will also be taken to Parliament for ratification.

The agreement is the most ambitious European Union deal with any African country in terms of climate protection and labour rights.

The agreement has been long, with the negotiations starting in 2002. 

In 2016, efforts to have the East African Community countries sign together failed. 

On the El Nino rains, the Cabinet was also briefed on the government's response in mitigating the effects of floods which was commended for being well-coordinated and effective. 

The National Government has worked with counties, the Kenya Red Cross, and other humanitarian organizations to provide food, rescue, and relocate displaced people.

The Cabinet was also informed that Comesa has once again extended Kenya's sugar import quotas, which were ending this year. However, this is the last time the extension will be given.

The Cabinet also discussed various papers, including the National Agricultural Insurance Policy, the National Extension Services Policy, the Draft Languages of Kenya Policy, the National Forest Policy, the Commuter Rail Improvement and the Food Systems Resilience Project.