KPLC disconnects electricity in NASA principal's home

National Super Alliance principal and Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula found himself on the wrong lane with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company on Tuesday when the electricity supply to his home in Nairobi was disconnected.

Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, the Ford Kenya party leader decried of molestation from the State owned KPLC, adding that he had exorbitantly been overcharged.

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“Mr Speaker, I have been treated as a criminal by Kenya Power. The electricity supply to my home here in Nairobi has been disconnected just because I questioned why I had to pay a bill of Sh699,000 which I have never paid before.

“We have come to a point where a Kenyan who was paying Sh2,000 per month is now paying Sh10,000 per month as electricity bill, where the country has no stable supply of the electricity itself,” Mr Wetangula lamented in the Senate.

The voice of Mr Wetangula adds to hundreds of Kenyan’s pleas to the monopolistic power supplier, even after President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to lower the cost of energy in his inauguration speech at Kasarani on November 28, 2017.

“Over my term, we will grow and sustain this manufacturing sector, and raise its share of the national cake from 9 to 15 percent.

To achieve this leap, I have directed that with effect from 1st December 2017, the power tariffs charged to manufacturers will be reduced by 50 per cent between the hours of 10:00pm and 6:00am,” the President said.

Just over the weekend, the Chief Executive Officer of the State owned Kenya Film and Classification Board Dr Ezekiel Mutua lamented to KPLC of the hiked electricity charges in his home in Nairobi of Sh50,000 a month, a figure he said had never paid before.

“If a leafy suburb like Lavington can be in darkness for two days and KPLC doesn't give a damn, what does the common mwananchi go through? Why should we have this lethargy in Government?

Why should we harass small mwananchi for simple mistakes when there are sacred cows in Government who operate with impunity? And to recall that I paid 50k for power bill last month for a family of five people is sickening. If there is an institution where impunity reigns supreme in this country it's Kenya Power,” said Dr Mutua.

Backdated Sh8.1 billion bills

Early January, details emerged that power consumers were to pay a backdated Sh8.1 billion worth of bills as KPLC moved to recover costs incurred on diesel generators last year but were not factored in monthly charges while the government sought to keep a lid on utilities in an election year.

Kenya Power revealed the hefty bill in its annual financial statement, explaining that it arose from severe drought last year which necessitated a surge in the uptake of expensive diesel-generated electricity that compensated for a sharp dip in hydro power production.

The bill was part of the Sh10.1 billion identified as unrecovered power fuel costs in the State-owned firm’s annual statement for the year ended June 2017.

About Sh2 billion has been recovered so far, leaving out Sh8.1 billion that will be passed on to consumers in monthly invoices.

Kenya Power was made to absorb the fuel costs in the months leading up to the August 8 elections, building up the arrears over the period.

“There were delayed fuel cost recoveries for the year ended June 2017 (partial fuel cost recovery) in support of the government’s goal of stabilising electricity costs,” Kenya Power responded to our queries, adding that the recovery of the funds has already started.

A High Court would later stop the exorbitant charges.