Kenya Power must streamline M-Pesa purchase of tokens

Today, my grouse is with the Kenya Power Company. I have the conviction that other Kenyans dependent on the lighting company will bear me witness.

They must be having grievances too. Buoyed by that belief, am going to be their self-appointed representative; but I will not be asking for guns or body guards to protect me on this mission.

I will start with a narrative. On Monday, I got home late from the office. It had been a tiring day and all I needed was to relax and unwind. One of the surest ways to beat work related stress and cramped muscles from sitting and bending over a computer key board the whole day is to stretch and momentarily escape from the real world and fantasize.

The world of fantasy is an ideal world; no sorrow, no pain, no stick or machete wielding lunatics and no obnoxious politicians to sour your mood. It is a world in which you are the main player who calls the shots.

I was in the middle of my reverie, where I had just somehow managed to lay my hands on the phone and proceeded to buy a BMW limousine when I remembered I should tackle the crossword before weariness and sleep overpowered me.

I love my sleep, but I am a crossword buff. Not having had the time at the office, the quietness of my cubicle, minus the shrill sound of the tiny radio, offers the ideal atmosphere to concentrate. I was reaching for my pen when a flickering of the lights reminded me to check on the metre. Sure enough, the units were down but I was not overly concerned because I had some little money on my Mpesa account to cater for such an eventuality.

Reaching for the phone, I went through the ritual of purchasing the token through M-Pesa. This is supposed to give one the convenience of not wasting time going to queue at the Kenya Power offices, interacting with the uncouth tout or encountering the pickpockets or street boys who would as easily relieve you of your hard earned money as smear you with human waste.

Confidently, I remitted Sh300 and after a while, I had this reply; Mtr No: 14105566302 Date 2014-9-29 20:06:01+0300: Sh300 is not sufficient; please add Sh396 to get credit. Annoyed, I decided that adding 400 will do the trick. Surprisingly, a similar message came back only this time I was to add Sh296.

By then, I was down to Sh300 so I decided I would give it to them if only to be left alone.

While I sat back and expected to get the card number to feed to the metre, the reply came back that I was again to add Sh396. By this time I was feeling sufficiently murderous. So Kenya Power thought I was made of the stuff, did they? Does it grow off trees?

I had to ask myself; is this some unethical business practice or a deliberate attempt to fleece the public? Not one to take such nonsense quietly, I visited the Kenya Power offices in town. A finance officer fiddled with the computer and assured me that all would be well, that I should go back home and wait. Am still waiting!

Ultimately, I had to lose convenience and waste the very time and money I initially sought to save by going to the Kenya Power offices in town. This reeks of incompetence and a lackadaisical approach to work yet Kenya Power customers are paying dearly for services. How many people may have been subjected to similar treatment but chose to ignore, hence needlessly losing their money to Kenya Power?

Computers respond to commands and programmes and perhaps the lighting company should come clean on why they programme computers to play ping pong with their customers, especially over weekends and in the evenings.

This incident highlights the ills of monopolies in a liberalised market. The government should consider licensing another company to awaken Kenya Power from its slumber. Not only have we to deal with such unfortunate situations where technology fails us when we need it most, the frequency of power outages is quite annoying.