Thousands of customers who have paid billions of shillings to be connected to the national grid are still in the dark as Kenya Power grapples with a shortfall in critical kits like meters.
The firm made the disclosures in the report for the year ended June 2025, adding that 16,422 potential customers have been affected, with some enduring delays of more than 20 years.
Kenya Power has on several occasions decried perennial lawsuits that have derailed procurement of critical kits like meters and transformers. Challenges to acquire wayleave for power lines have compounded the woes.
Inability to light up the customers has denied Kenya Power a chance to grow electricity sales and further boost its performance despite the firm posting net profits in two consecutive years.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
“The balance includes works in progress valued at Sh12,724,014,000 for electricity connections. Review of the list of works revealed that 7,740 projects with a total customer capital contribution of Sh887,821,276 were yet to start, thus denying the customers electricity supply as well as revenue to the company,” Auditor-General, Nancy Gathungu says in an audit on Kenya Power.
“Management attributed delays in completion of the works to non-availability of materials, wayleave acquisition challenges leading to re-design...”
The company’s electricity sales jumped 8.4 percent to 11,403 Gigawatt-hours in the year under review, underscoring the impact of increased customers who crossed the 10-million mark in the period.
But electricity revenues fell five percent to Sh219.28 billion while net profit tumbled 18.7 percent .
Kenya Power Managing Director and CEO Joseph Siror during the launch of the media campaign dubbed ‘Update Token Meter Yako’, on June 12, 2024.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
The audit shows that some 3,427 customers who had paid Sh564.58 million and others who had paid Sh366.7 million were yet to be connected by the close of the financial year in June 2025.
Kenya Power has in recent years grappled with court cases as aggrieved firms seek orders to revoke tenders on grounds that some conditions were unreasonable.
The cases have led to orders on Kenya Power to suspend tendering until the hearing and determination of the lawsuits. This has in turn led to a pile-up of paid up customers enduring lengthy delays before they are connected.
But Kenya Power has recently been cleared to proceed with some of the tenders, giving it an opportunity to speed up purchase of the kits to connect the customers.
The firm has on several occasions contemplated seeking approval from the National Treasury and the Ministry of Energy to be allowed to buy critical kits through the Specially Permitted Procurement model.
SPP is aimed at avoiding delays caused by protracted court cases in a bid to ease the shortage of materials. This procurement model must however get greenlight from the Treasury.
Kenya Power added 401,848 new customers in the year under review, a number that could have been higher were it not for the delays caused by the shortage of kits and other challenges.
