City Hall has set aside Sh691 million to clear Kenya Power electricity debt in a bid to bring to an end perennial power blackouts caused by the utility firm cutting off electricity supply.
Different installations and institutions belonging to the county government have suffered power blackouts due to disputes arising from failure by City Hall to offset the debt.
City Hall has set aside Sh691 million to clear Kenya Power #ticker:KPLC electricity debt in a bid to bring to an end perennial power blackouts caused by the utility firm cutting off electricity supply.
Different installations and institutions belonging to the county government have suffered power blackouts due to disputes arising from failure by City Hall to offset the debt.
According to Nairobi County Debt Management Strategy Paper for financial year ending June 30, 2022, City Hall owes the power distributor Sh691.58 million in electricity bill.
Nairobi County Assembly Budget and Appropriation committee chairman Robert Mbatia said the county government owes Kenya Power millions in electricity bill, some inherited from the defunct city council, which has often led to services at City Hall being interrupted whenever electricity supply is cut.
The allocation, he said, is intended to bring to an end the back and forth between City Hall and Kenya Power over debts owed to each other.
The Ann Kananu-led administration has also claimed that the utility provider owes them Sh856 million in wayleave charges that have not been paid for years.
“We have experienced power blackouts in City Hall because of the pending bills of Kenya Power and the county government want to clear that bill in totality,” said Mr Mbatia.
Earlier in the year, City Hall said it will negotiate with Kenya Power to swap the Sh691.58 million electricity bill with money due for wayleave charges from the power distributor.
This was after Nairobi County offices were in November last year plunged into darkness for three days running after Kenya Power cut electricity supply to City Hall and City Hall Annex over the power bill debt.
This led to disruption of operations in most county offices located in the two buildings with some getting closed while staff and those seeking services forced to use the stairs to access remaining offices, some up to the tenth floor.
“By paying the arrears, such incidents where the governor’s office and assembly is forced to operate on generators will be prevented from happening in future,” said Majority Leader Abdi Guyo.
The two entities have been at loggerheads over debt arrears since 2014 with the county government claiming Kenya Power also owes it millions in wayleave and rent arrears.
However, Kenya Power has responded by disconnecting electricity to Nairobi County government buildings or institutions in case of any default.
The first outage played out in January 2015, when City Hall was plunged into darkness for three days.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
