Kenya Power Seems to Have Failed Us Terribly

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed the apparent letdown from Kenya Power since the year began. There hasn't been a single day I have missed a complaint from someone on social media on the frequent power outages. The company seems to have failed us significantly this year. Businesses have been  reporting losses and destruction of electrical appliances due to the intermittent power supply throughout the country. Although  Kenya Power blames the increased outages in Nairobi largely on ongoing fibre optic projects in various parts of the city that causes damages to the underground electricity cables and exposes them to vandalism I believe that through proper and efficient management at the company these problems can be curbed or at least reduced.

The government should also look into liberalizing power distribution in the country and break the monopoly which has been enjoyed by the company for over 50 years. This would reduce vandalism of electric cables since most of it is done by informal distributors of electricity who use the cables to provide power illegally to their customers. Most of their customers are people living in informal settlements who prefer the services of these alternative distributors because they are cheaper and they don't experience as much power shortages. In fact, the basis that they are able to benefit from these informal distributors' services is the reason we experience power shortages.

 The power outages and surges are to say the least inconveniencing and annoying. It makes you realize that indeed we are a third-world country. It is even embarrassing to tell someone you live in the city yet you haven't had power in your household for three days or so and you've clearly paid your electric bill. The move to liberalize the power distribution would improve efficiency, encourage competition, and reduce the high cost of power which has scared away investors and hampered efforts to make Kenya an industrialized country and create jobs for youths. Proper management of the operations at the company should also be put in place to ensure efficient and transparent functioning of things.

References: www.standardmedia.co.ke
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