This is what the Kenya government is doing as regards power generation which is the Ethiopian comparative here:
Yes, energy is definately a huge cost for everybody. Electricity costs are currently high owing to heavy reliance on hydroelectricity (what are Ethiopia building there?..) that goes in short supply in dry periods and the country has to rely on diesel generated electricity but cheaper energy is in sight! Kenya is making global trends in shift to renewable energy.
Solar: Beginning this year, government and privates have partnered and we are building 9 large solar plants to be COMPLETED in 2016. How many African countries can even come close to this? Google that. This alone will cover half of Kenya's energy needs.
Geothermal: As we write now, KenGen is loading onto the national grid additional capacity from two existing power generation plants with a combined capacity of 280 Megawatts. They've shared a schedule on this so its not just talk. 140MW to the grid by April 2014 and 170MW in July from Olkaria and a further 100MW from Menengai in the course of this year. This will be at a low cost of 7 US cents.This would more than double the electricity generated from geothermal, which currently stands about 200MW. Beyond that, KenGen has been doing an upgrade of its Olkaria 1 and 4 plants, with each having an additional capacity of 140MW. GDC is developing a plant at Menengai with a capacity of 400MW, which will be commissioned in phases over the next three years and reach 400MW in 2017. The plan is to to shut down all diesel fired generators as more power generated from geothermal and other inexpensive sources start feeding into the national grid. We are finally on course on this area.
In the next 5-6 years, Kenya could be EXPORTING AFFORDABLE power.
As for distribution, we are doing badly. We should get similar impetus in modernisation of the power distribution grid.
Kenyans, let us acknowledge or simply inform ourselves when the right thing is finally being done.