News & Events

• Kenya Power implements Sh13 billion underground cabling project

STATEMENT BY AG. MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, DR. KEN TARUS, ON CONNECTIVITY NUMBERS AT STIMA PLAZA AUDITORIUM ON MONDAY 20^TH MARCH 2017

Acknowledgements:

• Members of the Media Present;
• Kenya Power Management;
• Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning.

 

• The report by The Standard Newspaper March 19, 2017, Business Section Page 26 authored by Paul Wafula, titled “Lying to the President: How Kenya Power Managers Cooked Last Mile Connection Figures” 
• The above article is based on an alleged interim internal Report on connectivity. However, the interim report is on Zero Vend and not Connectivity.  Zero vend refers to prepaid meters installed but have not yet purchased tokens or vended.
• The article erroneously concluded that zero vend pre-paid meters is the same as non- connection.  Indeed, the 940,668 customers claimed in the article are connected with power supply, but they have not vended for some time.

 

• We wish to state the following;

1. All Pre-Paid meters come with pre-loaded units.
2. Customers start to vend i.e buy and load tokens after exhausting the pre-loaded units.

• Our Interim Report identified the following as some of the reasons for Zero vend;
  1. Most of the customers who were beneficiaries of GBOPA and Last Mile Connectivity were largely from informal settlements whose monthly consumption is quite low. As a result, most of them take several months to exhaust the initial pre-loaded units.

 

3. Recent rapid development of the property sector due to growing demand for housing has seen installation of prepaid meters even before full occupation of the houses. Also in the leased housing units, movement of tenants at various times occurs. This has resulted in a number of installed pre-paid meters not vending for the period of non-occupancy.
4. Illegal connections and bypassing of our meters has seen a number of pre-paid meters not vending.

• We are undertaking the following remedial measures to manage the zero vends;
  1. Immediately upon connection, customers are required to load tokens to be able to have power.
  2. The company is actively engaging communities on the benefits of legal and safe connections and where this fails, we are prosecuting those who have illegal connections and have bypassed the meters.

We reiterate that the article was erroneous, as zero vending of prepaid meters is not the same as no connection. Indeed the number of connected customers is accurately captures on a daily basis as validated by ICS system.  KPLC has therefore not lied to GoK as reported in the article.

 

Kenya Power operates a centralized system that can be interrogated to confirm the number of customers connected to-date.

 

We confirm that the number of households connected to the national grid stands at 5.98 million which is equivalent to about 63% of national coverage. We target to connect 70% by the end of this year and universal access by the year 2020.

 

Thank you!

 

DR. KEN TARUS

AG. MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO

KENYA POWER

 

20^th March, 2017

Nairobi, March 9, 2017…The Principal Secretary, State Department of Energy, Dr. Eng. Joseph K. Njoroge has today officially launched the third edition of the Energy Journalism Excellence Awards (EJEA).

See more under twitter @Ejeakenya.

Management team pose for a group photo during a management meeting at the Institute of Energy Studies & Research #IESR Ruaraka, Nairobi.

January 04^th, 2017, Nairobi:

The Kenya Power Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ken Tarus as the Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company with effect from today (4th January 2017).

This follows the exit of the current MD & CEO, Dr. Ben Chumo, at the end of his contract period on Friday this week (6th January 2017). Dr. Chumo has been the head of the Company since January 2014 in a period characterised by exponential growth in customer connections and implementation of network improvement projects among other major corporate milestones.

Dr. Tarus, 46, brings with him over 20 years’ corporate leadership and management experience, five of which are in the energy sector. Prior to his appointment, he was the Company’s General Manager in charge of Finance and a member of the executive management team for a period of two years.

Previously, Dr Tarus worked at the Rural Electrification Authority as head of Finance between 2012 and 2014 prior to which he was the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance, Planning and Administration at KCA University. He has held various leadership roles in the local banking sector as Head of Finance, IT and Administration at Bank of Africa, Financial Controller at Standard Chartered Bank and diverse positions at Kenya Commercial Bank.     

He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Business Administration (Finance) from Kabarak University, an MBA from the University of Nairobi and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the same institution. Dr. Tarus is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the Kenya Institute of Management.

Kenya Power Chairman, Hon. Kenneth Marende, said the Board of Directors is confident that business operations of the Company will continue to run smoothly under the interim leadership of Dr. Tarus pending a competitive sourcing for a substantive Managing Director.

“With full responsibility for the leadership and development of the Kenya Power’s electricity distribution business, Dr. Tarus will play a key role in entrenching the Company as a leader in electricity subsector by aggressively pursuing its business growth and diversification strategy,” Hon. Marende said.

For more information, please contact:

Kevin Sang
Ag. Manager, Corporate Communications
Tel: (254) 20 3201639/22/1752
Mobile : +254 722 114597
E-mail : ksang@kplc.co.ke
Stima Plaza, Parklands, Nairobi
P O Box 45955 - 00100 Nairobi
http://www.kplc.co.ke  

 

Former MD & CEO, Dr. Ben Chumo with Deputy President Hon. William Ruto at Roda Kogo's (81) home in Kericho County for #LastMile launch. Roda had used a tin lamp all her life.