Consumers sue Kenya Power over high bills

?Power consumers and a Nairobi-based lawyer Thursday sued Kenya Power over inflated bills.

The Electricity Consumers Society of Kenya and lawyer Apollo Mboya went to court, seeking to block the power supplier from disconnecting or charging consumers extra to recover Sh8.1 billion from backdated bills.

Kenya Power had initially projected the cost at Sh10.1 billion and had recovered Sh2 billion in the first phase.

“The first respondent (KPLC) is abusing its monopoly, dominance, and buyer power in the supply of electricity to the consumers and threatening to disconnect electricity to its customers if they don’t pay the demanded backdated amounts,” the court papers filed Thursday read.

According to Mr Mboya, he had received 600 complaints of overcharged bills from different customers.

“The first respondent finally admitted that there were errors in their electricity bills and that some of the bills sent out to customers reflect an amount due in excess of what should have been charged,” he claimed.

Mboya, after asking the Competition Authority of Kenya to investigate Kenya Power, had been asked to supply the former with consumers' bills from last March in order to authenticate his complaint.

In the court papers, the lawyer said most consumers do not get their electricity bills through email or the post office.  

Inflated bills

The plaintiffs now want the court to order Kenya Power to refund the customers who had already paid the inflated bills.

They also want the court to order a forensic audit to establish whether consumers have been paying for what they have rightfully consumed.

jmuthoni@standardmedia.co.ke