Three Kenya Power board members resign
The Kenya Power and Lighting Company has announced the resignation of three board members, who have left to pursue "personal interests".
The three include Eng Elizabeth Rogo, Eng Abdulrazaq Ali, and Dr Caroline Kittony-Waiyaki, who served the company as independent directors.
"The Company would like to sincerely thank the directors for their commitment and dedicated service and wishes them all the best in their future endeavours," the Kenya Power acting general manager for legal, regulatory affairs and company secretary Ochieng J said.
The three were nominated as non-executive directors in July 2020 alongside two others, Sachen Gudka and Vivienne Yeda.
They were appointed to replace Adil Khawaja, Kairo Thuo, Wilson Kimutai Mugung’ei, Brenda Kokoi, and Zipporah Kerring, who left the power distributor in a hush, under unclear circumstances.
Mr Ali has for over 25 years working as a public servant in different parastatals, as well as the Ministry of Transport and Trade as the Principal Secretary.
On the other hand, Ms Kittony-Waiyaki is a lawyer with over 30 years of experience in conveyance, civil and commercial practice, intellectual property, and energy law.
Ms Rogo is an entrepreneur who created and leads TSAVO Oilfield Services and has extensive engineering knowledge.
Profits
The sole power distributor has been experiencing dwindling fortunes in the recent past. However, for the six months ended December 2021, Kenya Power's profits jumped over 27 times to Ksh3.81 billion from Ksh138 million in a similar period in 2020.
In a bid to cut costs, Kenya Power in February announced a massive redundancy action that would affect its 1,962 employees.
The national power distributor's former Chief Executive Officer Rosemary Oduor said the exercise would mainly affect ageing employees who will be replaced with 830 younger staff at a cheaper cost.
“The company, because of low attrition rate, has an ageing and expensive workforce resulting in staff cost growing at nearly twice the rate of revenue growth,” Oduor said.
She added: "In an environment where low operational costs and agility are critical requirements, productivity and quality of service have been negatively impacted."
The planned exercise will cost the power distributor Ksh5.3 billion and it will be implemented in a period of one year beginning May 2022.
New CEO
Two weeks ago, Kenya Power appointed Eng. Geoffrey Wasua Muli as its acting Managing Director, ousting Ms Oduor.
Prior to his appointment, Muli was the acting general manager in charge of Regional Coordination in the Company.
Eng. Muli holds a Master of Business Administration (Strategic Option); Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Administration (Strategic Option).
The company has been under pressure to implement a 30 per cent reduction in electricity tariffs, which was promised by President Uhuru Kenyatta last year.
In January, the government announced a 15 per cent reduction in power tariffs as part of the 30 per cent promised by President Kenyatta.
"The Ministry of energy hereby confirms that the Kenya Gazette of 7th January has effected a 15 per cent reduction in power tariffs. The reduction will boost livelihoods and economic growth by reducing the cost of living," the ministry said in a statement.
The government has assured Kenyans that it will affect the next 15 per cent trance before March. However, the cost cut is yet to be implemented, with reports indicating that Kenya Power and the government are yet to open talks with Independent power producers (IPPs).
Recently, Kenya Power began the installation of smart electricity meters to its customers to curb the rampant illegal connections experienced across the country.
Kenya Power is partly owned by the Government of Kenya with 50.1 per cent shareholding and private investors with a 49.9 per cent shareholding.
