The Government has declared Kenya Power a special government project due to high bills posted to consumers.
This will see an inter-ministerial team set up to audit it and oversight urgent reforms immediately.
The team will also audit procurement practices, insider trading, conflict of interest, and suspect transactions involving Kenya Power staff and other people or organizations involved.
Interior CS Fred Matiang’i chaired a meeting with Kenya Power management and staff before making the announcement.
“Our bills are unsustainable as they are today. We cannot continue this way,” said Fred Matiang’i.
Matiang’i also said that they were going to do a forensic audit of some of their systems and procedures. They are working jointly at an inter-ministerial level to reduce the system losses including the theft of power. We will address all challenges that result in passing unnecessary costs to consumers.
Matiang’i said Kenya Power had been ordered to immediately suspend ongoing and pending negotiations with independent power producers.
The power supplier will also review existing agreements to be prioritized in a bid to lower the cost of electricity in the country.
He said implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on Kenya Power will be undertaken immediately.
He added a meeting of all state agencies in the energy sector will be convened urgently to synergize and align the country’s demand-vs-supply needs of the country and to work out modalities of bringing down energy costs.
