Electricity costs soar by 67pc in President Ruto's first nine months in office
A Kenya Power technician repairs a transformer.
The cost of electricity has soared by 67 percent in the last nine months from a combination of higher fuel costs, currency depreciation and the review of electricity tariffs.
A Business Daily analysis of data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) reveals that the average price of 50 kilowatts/units (kWh) of electricity has increased from Sh796.83 in August last year to a mean of Sh1,326.54 at the end of May.
This has seen the cost of electricity exert the most pressure on consumer spending with electricity inflation being tabulated at 66.5 percent last month.
Consumers with a lower electricity consumption have borne the brunt of higher power bills in contrast to larger consumers with the cost of 200 units of electricity rising by a lower 47.2 percent to Sh6,436.28 last month from Sh4,373.12 in August last year.
The higher electricity prices mirror the blow to consumers who have already been grappling with the effects of costlier food and fuel across the same period.
The decision by President William Ruto to end a multi-billion-shilling subsidy programme at the end of last year set off the first notable rise in electricity prices in the nine months as power bills went up by as much as 15 percent.
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