Interior CS Fred Matiangi during a previous press briefing. The Kenya Power and Lighting Company has been declared a special government project.
This will see a an inter-ministerial team set up to audit it and oversight urgent reforms immediately.
Meanwhile, a multi-agency team comprising the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Financial Reporting Center, Assets Recovery Authority and other investigative agencies will be assembled to investigate alarming system losses.
The team will also audit procurement practices, insider trading, conflict of interest and suspect transactions involving Kenya Power staff and others.
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 Matiang’i.
In attendance were PSs Gordon Kihalangwa (Energy) and Julius Muia (Treasury), Kenya Power board chairperson Vivian Yeda and acting managing director Rosemary Oduor.
“We are going to do a forensic audit of some of our systems and procedures. We 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.
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 prioritised in a bid to lower cost of electricity in the country.
He said implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on Kenya Power will be undertaken immediately.“The government has ordered review of existing PPAs to be prioritised in a bid to lower cost of electricity procured by Kenya Power and therefore the unit cost of electricity billed to clients thereby lowering cost of electricity to Kenyans,” he said.Matiang’i, said the decision was in line with the recommendations of the Presidential Task Force on the Review of PPAs entered into by KPLC following widespread concerns of high electricity bills.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.The move to call in multi-agency teams to investigate activities at the agency comes even as the DCI is still on the meter and billing system which has been blamed on the exorbitant bills.After the meeting, Matiang’i assured lower fuel prices in the next maximum pump price review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority […]