State to prioritise most needy in second 15pc power bills cut

The government is working on a framework to soon implement the second tranche of 15 per cent power tariff cut that will see consumers who are most affected by the costly power bills given priority.

Kenya Power will therefore have to analyse its customer segments and split them based on need, signalling that the power distributor also remains keen to protect its revenues while offering cheaper affordable electricity.

“We are working on it (second 15 per cent) and we are looking at a possibility of disintegrating various categories so that we can still push it, particularly on the most affected,” said Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma.

The CS was addressing the press on the sidelines of the ongoing Sustainable Energy Conference in Olkaria, Naivasha.

Implementation of the second 15 per cent power cut was initially set for the end of March but was pushed to the end of June after negotiation between the government and independent power producers (IPPs) stalled.

The government recently released Sh7 billion to compensate Kenya Power for reducing power bills in the first 15 per cent reduction in January.

Commercial and Industrial (CI1) category consumers who use at least 15,000 units monthly are still complaining of costly tariffs despite the first cut that reduced electricity bills from previous sh12 to Sh8.7 per unit.

With the current 15 per cent reduction, ordinary domestic power users consuming between 100 and 1,500 units are now paying 12.60 per unit while small commercial users consuming over 100 units pay Sh7.7 per unit