Senators want Kenya Power top officials probed over billing scandal
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) should investigate top management of Kenya Power over a billing scandal, a Senate committee has recommended.
In its quarterly report, the Senate Energy Committee asked the DCI to probe tokens worth Sh35 million irregularly generated and issued to customers on diverse dates between January 2018 and February 2019.
The committee chaired by Nyeri Senator Ephraim Maina said the tokens were produced irregularly and were found to have been sent to customers through unofficial channels and relayed to customers through personal line.
“Owing to the fraudulent activities being criminal in nature, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is investigating the matter,” the House committee report read in part.
Customer experience
“Though the power utility is continually working to enhance customer experience and improve the existing controls to forestall such occurrence in the future,” it adds.
Sources say about 5,000 customers benefitted from the scam in which Kenya Power lost up to Sh10 billion as some of its employees had manipulated billing systems and diverted money to their pockets.
Kenya Power had argued that inflation of bills was necessary because it did not want to raise power charges during an election year, so it had to recover the money that had caused a huge financial gap in their 2017 financial statements.
The firm has since recover part of the funds by surcharging consumers.
