Why would the ERC boss Pavel Oimeke lie to Kenyans?

Pavel Oimeke

Kenyans have been treated to a cocktail of lies these past few weeks. Interestingly, those who lie do it without battliying an eyelid.

Well, on July 30, it was the turn of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to continue the lies being perpetuated on Kenyans from the energy sector.

The ERC boss himself, Mr Robert Pavel Oimeke, whose first major assignment at the helm of the institution that determines how much you pay for fuel was to consider a request by Kenya Power to increase what it is charging on electricity — chose to lie to us.

Instead of doing the honourable thing and tell consumers that due to the increasing cost of living, his agency had bowed to pressure to allow Kenya Power charge more, Mr Oimeke chose to sugar coat this message and lace it with lies to convince Kenyans that what he had done was in line with the Big 4 Agenda — that of growing the manufacturing sector.

Indeed, the devil is always in the detail. The Nairobian Defender continues to receive complaints from power consumers — some of which we have published on this page.  

The truth is that ERC increased energy tariffs by more than four times for some classes of consumers but clothed the message in public relations language.

The ERC punished even the small time consumer and massaged the blow by dropping the monthly Sh150 fixed charge to hoodwink consumers that the energy costs will be cheaper.

According to the new energy tariff that is backdated to take effect from July 1, the first 10 units (KWh) of energy consumed by domestic consumers will now cost Sh12 each from Sh2.5 previously charged. This means that for the first ten units, one will now part with Sh120, up from the Sh25 previously.

For the next 40 units consumed by a domestic user, Kenya Power will now earn Sh15.80 per unit, up from Sh2.5 previously charged. This means that in this band once again, a user will now pay Sh632 instead of Sh100 charged previously, which is an increase of more than 600 per cent.

There is no respite for domestic consumers who consume upto 1500 units per month given that they will now pay the Sh15.80 per unit for every extra unit consumed from the 51-1500 unit. It is only after the 1500th unit that there will be a small relief for domestic consumers — who will continue paying the standardized pay Sh15.80 down from the Sh20.57 they were paying previously.

But then there are very few domestic consumers who use more than 1500 units a month and besides, one will have already paid more for the earlier units consumed so the relief will not translate into any saving.

For the small commercial consumers, the Sh150 fixed charge has also been scrapped. But that is where the party stops. For the first 15,000 units consumed by the small commercial consumers — those who operate small shops and outlets such as kiosks, small supermarkets, barber shops, butcheries and so on, one will have to part with Sh15.80 per unit up from the Sh13.5 they were paying previously.

It means that for instance, if your monthly consumption was 100 units, one will now pay Sh1,560 compared to Sh1350 they were paying for the same number of units. This is a 15 per cent increase. The more the units consumed, the higher the amounts, until the 15000th unit is consumed. The trend is almost the same for all the other categories of energy consumers all the way down to commercial or industrial consumers and street lighting.

For instance street lighting will now cost Sh7.5 per unit up from Sh4.36 per unit. It is only the big manufactures and power consumers who consume bulk power that will see a significant saving when they adjust their production plans to use power at night when the rest of the country is asleep, power that goes to waste anyway.

Just why would Oimeke lie to Kenyans? Anyway governments the world over lie all the time.