Lights finally dim on 'father of electricity' Hindpal Jabbal
Financial Standard
By
Macharia Kamau
| Jan 14, 2025
Hindpal Jabbal during an interview with The Standard in October 2019. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]
Kenya’s energy sector is mourning the death of Hindpal Singh Jabbal, who worked in the sector for more than five decades.
Jabbal, who died recently, aged 87, served in different capacities starting out as a junior engineer in the 1960s at Kenya Power and eventually becoming the founding chairman of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory (Epra), which was then the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001350865/costly-project-that-ruined-kenya-power#google_vignette">He worked his entire< life in public service, a rarity among Kenyans of Indian descent who mostly prefer to stay away from government jobs and instead opt to set up industries. Jabbal’s service to Kenya’s power sector earned him the moniker “father of electricity.”
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He retired in 1987 and since then worked in the West Indies’ power sector, consulted for the World Bank and the Kenyan Ministry of Energy before becoming the founding chair of Epra.
In 2018, he was awarded the Sikh Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Kenya’s power sector. The awards recognise individuals in the Sikh community around the world for their contributions in different fields.
Jabbal has been vocal and even critical about the power sector, particularly pointing out the ills that afflict the sector and what needs to happen to have a stable sector that does not burden consumers.
He also pointed out the problems at the Ministry. He is perhaps the only insider who has criticised the sector without fear of repercussions with many of his former colleagues choosing to remain silent after exiting the sector, with a number of them continuing to get consulting contacts from government and energy sector agencies they worked with.
In past interviews with different media outlets, Jabbal said he was hired as a junior at Kenya Power in 1961, having failed to get employment in 1958, shortly after returning from his studies in India, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering.
At the time, the company undertook the different roles of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and retail, which are currently carried out by different government agencies, with generation having been further liberalised to include private sector players.
Then, the company was known as the East African Power and Lighting Company (EAP&L) but in 1983 changed its name to Kenya Power and Lighting Company.
="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/counties/article/2001368695/skewed-tendering-system-earns-fuel-importers-bumper-pay-day">It would in later< years be unbundled with the creation of KenGen, which oversees generation, and much later the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco), mandated with transmission. Kenya Power is now in charge of distribution and retail.
Jabbal took a break from Kenya Power in 1966 after being accepted into a commonwealth scholarship to study a master’s degree in Power Systems at the University of Manchester.
He returned to Kenya Power in 1971 and was attached to the office of assistant chief engineer in charge of planning at the firm. He would rise to protection engineer and then chief engineer planning and eventually corporate planning manager, a key role in which he was mandated with ensuring that the utility balanced power demand and supply.
In this role, he was instrumental in crafting the rules that guide the development of the country’s Least Cost Power Development Plans (LCPDPs), which are 10-year plans that match planned investments in the power sector with the expected power demand.
He was also part of the team that oversaw Kenya’s journey in diversifying its electricity generation to include geothermal.
Up until 1980, the country was reliant on hydropower. Kenya Power had foreseen the danger in this and started working on geothermal, with the first plant constructed in 1981, when Jabbal was chief manager of planning. Geothermal currently accounts for half of the power consumed in the country.
He took an early retirement in 1987 at the age of 50 years. After leaving KPLC, he worked as general manager of a utility in the West Indies (1987 to 1991).
He later worked as a technical advisor for the Ministry of Energy between 1998 and 2004 on a World Bank-funded project. In 2007, Former President Mwai Kibaki appointed him as the founding chairman of ERC.
At the energy industry regulator, Jabbal was a key architect in the implementation of the petroleum price capping formula.
This was in response to public uproar, with the feeling at the time being that oil marketing companies would employ the asymmetric pricing of fuel – also referred to as rockets and feathers.
="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001231725/business-beat-licence-hitch-denies-university-cash-from-power-sales">The companies wo
The energy sector regulator began issuing the maximum retail pump prices in December 2010 and announces fuel prices on the 14 of every month with the prices remaining in place for a month.
Since then, other countries in the region such as Tanzania and Rwanda have started issuing similar guidance.
The pricing formula has severally been criticised in the recent past, with authorities being accused of manipulating it and leaving consumers with the short end of the stick.
Last week, Epra eulogised him as a visionary leader and an architect of the authority’s regulatory reforms
“We’re deeply saddened by the passing of our former Chairman, Hindpal Singh Jabbal. He served as Chair of the board between 2007-2011 His life of humility and dedication will always be remembered. Our heartfelt condolences to his family. May he rest in peace,” said the regulator.
“A visionary leader and an architect of the authority’s regulatory reforms. Your legacy of wisdom, integrity and service to the nation will forever inspire generations.”
Over the last two decades, Jabbal wrote extensively on the power sector, with some of his writings being tough criticism of government policies on energy planning and project implementation. He has also been vocal about the lack of independence among energy sector agencies, including Epra, the regulator that he helped set up.
“As such, all major decisions are now dictated by the Energy Ministry. These decisions relate to hiring and firing of senior management and staff, preparation of least cost power development plans, selection of new projects, negotiation with IPPs, award of contracts and setting the electricity tariff,” said Jabbal in one of the recent articles he co-wrote with Kwame Owino, chief executive of Institute of Economic Affairs.
“As such, if anything goes wrong in KPLC for example, it is very difficult to hold anybody fully responsible.”
Many energy journalists interacted with Jabbal. According to some of them, initial interactions were not always easy, with the engineer always perturbed by non-engineers – which is the case for many covering the energy sector – attempts to explain the energy sector to Kenyans.
He believed that energy journalists should have an engineering background and then study communication to be able to tell the public about the in-depth intrigues of the sector.
To his credit, he was patient and would walk with even rookie journalists to help them understand the sector and simplify the seemingly complex sector from power production to transmission, distribution and billing.
He would later point out areas of improvement once stories run and even offer possible pointers for follow-up stories.
“Call it passion, or a calling, Jabbal’s obsession with energy matters in Kenya was second to none,” said Neville Otuki, a long-time energy journalist
“A numbers guy, he was especially focused on tariffs, energy planning and management. Eager to share his vast knowledge with the Kenyan public, he tirelessly wrote in the dailies, and backstopped energy journalists in their reporting.”
Renowned journalist Julians Amboko noted that “Mzee Hindpal Jabbal was quite a character. He’d watch my interviews with KenGen and Kenya Power executives and summon me to his house to discuss gaps in the discussions.”
“He had very rich context on Kenya’s power sector going back to the 1950s, talk about someone who had seen it all. Rest well. You will be missed,” he wrote on his Twitter account.