Dagoretti member of the National Assembly Beatrice Elachi on Thursday called out lawmakers for demonising Kenya Power bosses as the company continues to deal with tough times.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the outspoken lawmaker accused some of the leaders of pointing fingers at its management yet they had cut business deals with Kenya Power, which trades under the KPLC ticker, during its heyday.
She further explained that officers at the company were serving under the government and should be accorded time to steer the institution to profitability.
"I have seen of late we have had a very negative campaign on them and we must stop it because it is us who have killed Kenya Power. We can't come and blame them yet we know the things we did wrongly," she stated.
"That is why our leadership is hurting us in the things that we do. When KPLC was (good), most of us here did business with them and we just brought the institution to its knees and now we want to blame the officers. It is not fair to Kenyans who work for us."
Further, Elachi revealed that she had noticed, alongside other lawmakers, that the powers of Kenya Power were slowly getting eroded and transferred to the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) Limited.
She, however, insisted that Kenya Power should be strengthened in its mandate since MPs had a better chance of holding the utility company's bosses to account in service delivery.
"As you continue looking at various documents, you realise that most of the powers of Kenya Power seem to be getting into Ketraco slowly by slowly and we are just quiet in this house. Getting Ketraco officials is more difficult than getting Kenya Power officials," she added.
"If we have decided to erode their gains and their mandate taking it to Ketraco, we must ask ourselves, 'How are we going to deal with that?'"
She highlighted an instance in which a contractor slapped a Mosque in Amboseli with a Ksh1 million electricity bill and vanished. As a result, Worshippers are finding it challenging to track the paperwork to ascertain their true bill.
Elachi, as a result, asked her colleagues to take responsibility for their actions contributing to Kenya Power's challenges.
"We must agree to take responsibility, build back the institution, and let the institution start thinking on how it can reduce the costs that are so high," she explained.
For months, the utility company has been under pressure over delayed connections and high power prices.
In March, MPs grilled the company's Chief Executive Officer Joseph Siror over a delay in connecting electricity to 42,965 Kenyans.
The customers had approximately paid Ksh4 billion for the service. The Auditor General had also raised the concerns in the Annual Reports and Financial Statements for the year ending June 30, 2023.
