ERC acting director-general Pavel Oimeke.Photo/ theinformer.co.keAbout 60 jobs are up for grabs as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) moves to open five regional offices in Kisumu, Mombasa, Eldoret, Nyeri and Marsabit for licensing of projects and supervision.
The energy regulator says it would require experts in renewable energy, electricity, petroleum and gas, environmental, health and safety managers, alongside drivers and office assistants.
“We need a technical team to license projects and enforce our regulations in the planned regional offices,” said ERC acting director-general Pavel Oimeke.
The decentralisation of the agency’s roles, currently concentrated in its Nairobi office, comes amid rising power projects in counties, largely solar parks and wind farms.
It’s part of the ERC’s five-year strategic management plan running up to 2022.
Oimeke reckons the additional offices will strengthen the agency’s hand in providing advisory and oversight services, including upping surveillance on rising cases of fuel adulteration and illegal refilling of cooking gas.
“We want to be pro-active not reactive as has been the case whenever issues have come up,” he said.
Energy sector workers are second best paid in Kenya at an average of Sh121,998 a month , behind those in financial sector, according to Economic Survey 2017.