Consumers defaulted on electricity bills worth Sh4.67 billion in the year ended June 2025 alone, according to a new report.
The latest report by the Auditor-General revealed that homes and businesses consumed 140.06 million units of electricity in the period under review but failed to pay, denting the electricity firm’s revenues.
Unpaid bills continue to be a major hurdle to Kenya Power forcing the utility firm to enlist the services of debt collectors in a bid to cut the defaults which are estimated to be more than Sh30 billion in total.
Kenya Power's offices on Aga Khan Walk, Nairobi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“During the year under review, a total of 140,064,582 units were billed to customers for electricity consumption equivalent to Sh4,669,271,477 but remained unpaid. Reasons for non-payment and measures taken by management to collect the unpaid amount were not confirmed,” Nancy Gathungu, the Auditor-General said.
Part of the Sh4.67 billion is Sh1.786 billion worth of electricity consumed through active and vending meters, with Ms Gathungu picking out high defaults as a major problem facing Kenya Power.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
State entities and county governments hold the bigger chunk of the unpaid bills. Some of the bills have been pending payment for over a decade.
Kenya Power has over the years been forced to adopt innovative measures to enforce collection of unpaid debts or prevent accumulation of new bills. These measures are critical at a time the company is racing to meet demands of the growing customer numbers. Connections crossed the 10 million mark in the year under review.
Top of the innovative measures include installation of pre-paid and smart meters and demanding higher deposits for customers considered to have a high risk of defaulting.
Postpaid customers are required to pay a deposit which is equivalent to two times their monthly consumption and not less than Sh2,500.
Kenya Power has also enlisted the services of debt collectors but this has yielded marginal gains, forcing the company to seek approval from the Treasury to write off part of the debt.
“The following strategies are currently in operation and are largely successful in other high-risk areas of non-paying customers. These include, use of third-party debt collectors and focus on early identification and requirement for higher security deposits for defaulting customers,” the utility firm says in its latest annual report.
Customers who fail to pay within 21 days after billing will be disconnected. The firm then steps up recovery measures which include demand letters and closure of an account if there is no payment within three months of disconnection.
Kenya Power cut its provision for impairment of defaulted electricity bills to Sh13.32 billion in the year ended June 2025 compared to Sh19.28 billion a year earlier.
Kenya Power also revealed that it wrote the National Treasury seeking approval to write-off an unrecoverable debt of Sh4.19 million.
