A section of Kenyans were stranded for hours as they experienced delays while purchasing Kenya Power's electricity tokens.
Most users complained that they could not access the prepaid service for the better part of Tuesday night, January 30 and Wednesday morning, January 31.
A spot check by this writer confirmed that a message from mobile money service providers indicated that Kenya Power's system experienced technical challenges.
"Transaction failed, the mobile money cannot complete payment of Kshxx to KPLC Prepaid. The organisation's system receiving the payment experienced some technical challenges, try again later," read part of the message.
In other cases, some customers complained that they had already made the transactions but had not received the messages.
"I bought tokens but haven't received them until now, kindly assist. Here is the message that I received," a user explained.
"Dear Kenya Power, I made two token purchases without receipts,"
"What's happening with KPLC's system? The tokens have depleted and my phone is almost off," another user commented online, expressing that he received an error message while trying to access the prepaid service.
Additionally, Kenyans also complained about receiving fewer tokens in January compared to the previous month following Kenya Power's latest electricity review.
Customers who purchased tokens worth Ksh250 in December received 8.87 units and 7.82 units in January.
Kenya Power attributed the changes to the sharp increase in forex adjustment charge which rose to Ksh50.53 from Ksh28.11.
The forex adjustment charge in this case accounts for the variation of hard currencies against the Kenyan shilling whose value has depreciated in the past months.
Currently, the Kenyan currency trades against the dollar at Ksh161, signalling a negative implication in the country's economy.
