Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter on Monday announced that Kenyans will no longer be charged for electricity based on estimates by the Kenya Power (KP).
Addressing a press conference after an uproar from Kenyans following a report that the electricity bills would be backdated to cover costs, the retained CS explained that the higher billings were as a result of estimation by Kenya Power.
"The report that electricity bills have been backdated is not true. If you see the billings there has been a lot of estimation. Out of that Kenya Power went into a system upgrade," he stated.
[caption caption="File image of Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter"]
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Prior to the announcement, Kenya Power would issue bills to some consumers based on estimations. However, the CS stated that in the new system, Kenyans would not be charged based on estimations to avoid backdating.
"There will be no estimation of meters. You are billed on actuals or you are not billed so that we avoid this backdating," he conveyed.
Mr Keter added that KPLC, the Energy Regulation Commission or the Ministry have no mandate to carry out a tariff increment.
"If there is any Kenyan with an issue they will go and they will be sorted out so that they get their right billing," he assured.
He further stated that the Ministry was in the process of increasing power supply to meet the country's demand.
"One of the units of Olkaria, about 30MW is still down. By February we are expecting that unit to be up," he stated.
Following the announcement, lawyer Apollo Mpoya, who had pledged to file a class-action suit against Kenya Power, maintained that the costs were inflated in an attempt to recover lost money.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Mr Mboya stated that the CS had misplaced priorities and should have dealt with the policy issues.
"He has confirmed that Kenya Power is doing guesswork with the estimate. We are going to see, in the next few months, people getting inflated costs in an attempt to recover this money," he stated.
[caption caption="File image of Lawyer Apollo Mboya"]
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He further told Kenyans.co.ke that the class action suit was on course and that he would file the case on Thursday.
"The issues that are arising are over-billing, reduction in units of the tokens, there are problems with customer care, bill adjustments, fluctuation of tariffs. Apart from consumers getting value for money we want to address the issue of abuse of monopoly," he stated.
