Kenya Electrical Trade and Allied Workers Union (KETAWU) has strongly defended Kenya Power employees from complicity in the inflated electricity bills saga.
KEWATU Secretary General Ernest Nadome termed as unfortunate recent remarks attributed to Energy Cabinet Secretary (CS) Charles Keter that Kenya Power staff were lazy.
Last week, Keter reportedly said Kenya power staff were too lazy to do actual meter reading leading to the inflated electricity bills that Kenyans have been grappling with.
Nadome accused the CS of playing to the public gallery, saying the Kenya Power employees were hardworking and committed.
“It is the new system procured by the electricity company last year that is to blame for the inflated bills that Kenyans have been receiving,” he claimed.
Nadome charged “In his position as a CS, Keter should have done his homework well to establish really what is ailing Kenya Power on matters billing.”
He went on, “The whole problem that is bedeviling Kenya power on matters billing is none other than the system that was recently procured and put in place.”
Nadome spoke to journalists at the National Industrial Training Authority (Nita) in Mombasa on Friday, where he had accompanied Labour CS Ukur Yatani on a tour of the facility.
Kenya power launched its upgraded Integrated Customer Management System (InCMS) in November 2017 to improve efficiency.
However, the company’s clients have been complaining of inflated power bills ever since.
Nadome, who is also the first Assistant Secretary General at Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU), said the new billing system has caused more problems instead of solving the ones it was intended for.
“Initially, we had a system that was working very well but the current system is where the problem originates from,” he said.
He added: “Kenyans should be asking, why the pay bill number 888880 is not working while the one for vendors is working well.”
KP has contracted 14 vendors to help in distributing prepaid tokens in Nairobi.
Majority of Ketawu members (about 70 per cent) are drawn from Kenya Power while the rest are drawn from Kengen, Geothermal Development Company and other allied firms.
Nadome called for a probe in the procurement department of the Kenya power, stating that the electricity distributor could be lying when it claims that 95 per cent of meters were being read.
“Kenya Power employees are still very few. They do not have the capacity. The senior people in this country refuse to allow company employees to access their homes for them to read the meters,” he said observing that all these factors lead to estimation of bills.
By Hussein Abdulahi
We are not to blame for inflated electricity bill-KEWATU
