Slayqueen: US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter
On Tuesday morning, the US Ambassador to Kenya Kyle McCarter was aksied a question about manufacturing to which he responding among other things referring to coal as cheap and clean energy option.
Kenyans of good will immediately corrected the Ambassador who remained adamant sticking to his guns including threatening one by using the words, 'be careful'.
It should not be lost to Kenyans that the coal power plans in Lamu is very wasteful and should not be a choice in a country that has a lot of sunshine.
The findings of a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) shows that the Lamu Coal Power is not the best choice for Kenya.
The plant would lock the country into a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) that would force electricity consumers to pay more than $9 billion, even if Lamu project doesn’t generate any power as long as it is available for dispatch.
This is pure daylight robbery.
Furthermore, coal is not the best bet in terms of human health.
Let’s take China for example; China has powered itself into prosperity using coal, but that has come with so much human cost.
In China, air pollution is killing over 1 million people and costing Chinese economy 267 billion yuan (US$38 billion) a year in the form of early deaths and lost food production, this is according to research conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Coal does not only affect the people in the vicinity, it has implications far and wide.
One more important thing is that, today, June 26th, 2019 from 2:30pm there will be a judgment on Lamu coal plant at the Supreme court. Lamu residents, environmentalists and activists went to court to oppose the construction of the coal plant.
Kenya doesn't need a poisonous coal plant.
Below are some tweets we sampled:
https://twitter.com/USAmbKenya/status/1143603734531989504?s=19
https://twitter.com/USAmbKenya/status/1143727541922029571?s=19
https://twitter.com/fikrazangu/status/1143746182889558017?s=19
https://twitter.com/hotshotcreative/status/1143745801904099333?s=19