Kenya Power says staff colluded with customers to steal tokens

Senators have asked Kenya Power to compensate customers who were surcharged for electricity tokens stolen by the firm’s employees.

Appearing before the House's Energy committee, Kenya Power Managing Director Jared Otieno admitted that unscrupulous staff colluded with customers to fleece the company of Sh35 million through fraudulent sale of power tokens.

He said the fraud involving 3,500 customers took place between January 2018 and last February. “In November 2018, Kenya Power received business intelligence alleging that prepaid tokens were being advertised for sale at discounted prices through social media,” said Mr Otieno.

“Based on this information, an internal audit commenced and upon its conclusion, it was established that tokens worth Sh35,280,567 were irregularly generated and issued to customers.”

He said upon investigations, the firm proceeded to debit electricity accounts of the customers who had illegally purchased the tokens to recover the lost money.

This statement, however, prompted lawmakers to demand that the company compensates the customers as the fraud involved its staff.

Senator Ephraim Maina, who is the committee’s chairman, said the power utility firm ought to take responsibility.