Why we need concerted effort to rid our economy of vandalism

(Photo: Courtesy)

In Kenya, where 60 per cent of the population is connected to power, electricity can easily be taken for granted. One may particularly attribute this to a high access rate that has, for instance, seen four million households get connected to the national grid in the past four years alone.

We in industry, however, appreciate that an information gap exists between the consumer and the amount of electricity that the country generates, transmits and distributes for use. It is due to that information gap that vices such as illegal connections, meter tampering, bypassing and vandalism have thrived. And unknown to most Kenyans, these vices lead to electricity losses running into billions of shillings that consumers are eventually asked to pay via power tariffs.