Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer
By Daisy Gakuu
Controversy continues to haunt the country’s sole power distributor with the call to stop it from increasing tariffs leading to the move to freeze new electricity connections. Kenya Power anticipated an increase in charges in April but the Deputy President Hon. William Ruto declined their proposal. With effects to that, the electricity distributor has halted all applications by new consumers to supply electricity.
This comes barely a month after Marakwet East MP, David Bowen, gave Notice of Motion at the National Assembly wanting the Government to liberalize power distribution thereby breaking the monopoly of KPLC. He argued that liberalizing distribution would encourage competition, which will result in efficiency and a reducing in the cost of power.
As a result, development is questionable given the new buildings under construction that are dependent on power. They will be forced to either wait until KPLC reconsiders or invest on other forms of power generation like installing solar panels.
Kenya Power specifies about six procedures involved in connecting its new customers to its grid. According to a report by Doing Business Project on Getting Electricity in Kenya, the process involves: submitting an application to KPLC and awaiting site inspection; receiving site visit from KPLC and awaiting estimate; Customer pays estimate and signs supply contract; Customer calls utility and collects meter and meter number; Customer obtains excavation permit from City Council and submits to utility and KPLC conducts external connection works, meter installation and electricity starts flowing. According to the report, this process takes up about 150 days and most consumers would comply to get connected.
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