National Super Alliance (NASA) Members of Parliament have announced that they will take action against the Kenya Power Company following the massive power outage experienced on Tuesday night.
Speaking from Parliament building, a section of NASA MPs announced that they would require the company's acting Managing Director Dr Ken Tarus to appear before the Energy Committee as soon as the House resumes.
"On the week of February 15 when we resume Parliament, we are going to summon the MD for Kenya Power Ken Tarus so that we launch an investigation and find out the irregularities that we suspect are happening at Kenya Power and the overpricing of power so that Kenyans can get value for money," Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo stated.
The MPs alleged that the Tuesday night outage could not have been a result of a system upgrade as explained by a statement from Kenya Power.
[caption caption="Acting Kenya Power MD, Dr Ken Tarus"]
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"Before you do a system upgrade it is required of you to conduct a pilot. If you don't pilot it then it means that you are either using an engineer who is not qualified to upgrade your system or using quacks to upgrade your billing systems. So the blame falls squarely on the Kenya Power MD.
"Why did the company declare dividends for the 2017 financial year instead of declaring a Sh10.1 Billion loss? Who gave them the authority to recover this loss from the consumer?" the MP questioned.
Nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi accused Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter of giving a contradictory statement.
"Clearly there is a problem, Kenya Power told Kenyans that the bills are higher because of a Sh 10.1 Billion arising from fuel cost adjustments then the Cabinet Secretary comes out to say that there are billing fluctuations," the MP posed.
He went on to emphasise that the CS, along with five others, who were reinstated by President Uhuru Kenyatta ought to have gone through a vetting process due to such inconsistencies.
The NASA leaders also faulted Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Director General Robert Oimeke for failing to advocate for Kenyans concerning the inflated power bills.
[caption caption="ERC Director General Robert Oimeke"]
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