Water company ordered to refund over Sh20 million to customers

The Nyahururu Water and Sewerage Company (Nyahuwasco) has been directed to refund its customers over Sh20 million it allegedly overcharged them since March this year.

The Water Services Regulatory Board has written to the management of the company to refund the charges it imposed as new tariffs before they were gazetted by the board.

The board has also accused the company of overcharging customers on their sewerage fees.

In a confidential report seen by The Standard, the board has consequently directed that the extra fees be refunded.
“The water tariff was gazetted vide Kenya Gazette No 2317 of March 2020 and the utility misapplied the approved tariff under different consumption block. For instance, under the domestic category, a consumption of 51 units would be charged at Sh105 per unit based instead of graduating the units from the lowest consumption block. This leads to overbilling of customers which may be huge depending on the units consumed and customer’s category,” read the letter.

It directed that the billing software be immediately adjusted to generate the correct billing as of October 2020.
On the issue of the sewerage system, the letter stated

The approved tariff clearly states that for customers with water connection, the sewerage volumes shall be determined at 75 per cent of the volume of water consumed at the specified tariff for water. Contrary to this requirement, the utility was charging for sewer at 75 per cent at the total water bill thereby overcharging customers”.

But the county government through the director of communications in the governor’s office Muchiri Gitonga termed the claims as a fabrication.

‘Some unscrupulous persons including former officers of the company and their patrons are trying to use this to dampen our efforts due to the fact that these deep-rooted reforms happening at the water utility have obviously impacted the fate of some officers. This is clearly a case of corruption fighting back. We are not surprised but we will not relent,” he said in a statement.

He said that the county government would continue to ensure better leadership of the water company for quality services to the customers.