Kenya Power slaps pre-paid customers with surcharge bill

Kenya Power has shocked the more than 120,000 pre-paid power consumers after it asked them to pay for 30 units they were allegedly given for free during meter installation.

The demand is set to set off friction between tenants and landlords as the company is seeking to recover the money from current users regardless of whether the units were consumed by earlier occupants.

“Please note that the 30 units that the prepaid meter was installed with will be recovered as from today,” read an SMS alert sent to the prepaid consumers’ onTuesday afternoon.

Kenya Power said the 30 units were not given for free and that they will be recovered at the cost of electricity at the moment of installation in six phases.

This means that low consumers —whose monthly consumption is below 50 units — will pay about Sh450 for the 30 units while the high consumers will pay about Sh700.

But those whose meters were installed at height of record electricity prices will pay more since power prices have fell 20 per cent this month compared to December on increased use of cheaper hydro power over diesel driven generators.

On Tuesday, the Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) had told consumers to resist paying for the 30 units that are currently worth Sh450, and has threatened to seek legal redress if power users had been informed that the units were free.

“We have received complaints from consumers about the demand and we are asking that nobody pays for now,” said Stephen Mutoro, the secretary general of Cofek.

“We will call for a meeting with Kenya Power at the end of the week to determine whether the company indicated the units were for free, either in written contracts or verbally.

Kenya Power introduced the prepaid meters to cut the risk of consumer default and lower operational expenses, with plans to raise the number of the meters to 500,000 by 2015.

Its unpaid bills has risen to Sh7.4 billion in the year to June compared to Sh5.2 billion in a similar period last year, meaning that the additional bad debt was equivalent to 54 per cent of its Sh4.2 billion net profit.

Consumers on prepaid meters use units of power they have paid for in advance, similar to mobile air time top-ups, helping Kenya Power to receive its revenues in full while reducing the need for meter readers who are sent to households or businesses.