Kenya Power on Tuesday announced a fresh initiative to fast-track meter installation in the country.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Kenya Power Managing Director Joseph Siror said in the new plan, current pending electricity connections will be completed within 90 days.
According to Siror, the company is projecting to connect 320,000 customers using recently procured metres.
Per the Managing Director, the total pending new connections stand at 236,924. To this end, the company revealed that it has completed 10,759 connections already since the initiative commenced.
“In the recent past, we have experienced challenges with the procurement of critical materials which has negatively impacted our drive to onboard new customers. I am happy to note that these challenges have been addressed and we have started receiving meters, which we are deploying to clear pending connections,” said Dr Siror.
Siror acknowledged that procurement of materials had encountered hitches affecting connections for new customers.
''I am happy to note that these challenges have been addressed and we have started receiving meters, which we are deploying to clear pending connections,” said CEO Siror.
Court battles on procurement of materials according to the CEO, have hindered the rate at which customers access electricity because of delays.
''Despite the Company’s campaign to raise the national electricity access rate, many customers have been forced to wait for long periods as protracted court battles hindered procurement of meters and other materials,'' he noted.
Additionally, Siror lamented that most litigations, the company is grappling with were launched on controversial grounds. He however noted that five of them were handled in the past year.
The CEO also noted that the company is in the process of replacing faulty meters.
This comes even as Kenyans continue to raise concerns over differences in the amount of tokens awarded to owners of metres acquired recently and those acquired during former president Uhuru Kenyatta's era under the last-mile connectivity program.
Kenya Power has however responded to the concerns explaining that metres acquired under the programme are subject to deductions in line with the initial purchase agreement.
