Kenya Power to pay trader Sh2m over burnt goods after transformer mishap

Kenya Power has been penalised after one of its transformers exploded and destroyed more than 400 tyres nine years ago, at a Makupa yard in Mombasa.

The electricity company has been ordered to pay Mombasa businessman Ahmed Mbarak more than Sh2 million for the loss and damage he suffered when his business premise was razed by a fire that was started by the faulty transformer.
Mombasa High Court Judge Dorah Chepkwony, while awarding the damages, noted that Kenya Power was negligent and therefore needed to compensate the businessman for the loss he suffered. 

“I proceed to award the businessman Sh2 million for the loss and damage that was occasioned to him by the respondent’s negligence,” said the judge.

In his court documents, Mr Mbarak said that at the time of the incident, his yard had at least 400 second-hand tyres.

He told the court that the incident happened on July 1, 2013, at around 11pm, along Mwangeka Road.   

The businessman argued that Kenya Power was liable for the loss he suffered because its property triggered the fire that ended up destroying his business.

Recounting the events of that night, the businessman told the court that he was at Links Road when he received a call from his assistant informing him that the yard, where he stores his tyres, had gone up in flames and the transformer was to blame. 

“I instructed my assistant to call one of the staff members to try and put off the fire as I tried to reach the county fire brigade,” he said

Mr Mbarak further informed the court that Kenya Power only responded to his calls and managed to contain the inferno after more than five hours. 

He said his business suffered because the transformer was one and a half metres from his yard.

Mr Mbarak stated that his yard was fenced, gated and the transformer was near the road.

“The transformer was defective and had been showing sparks and the fuse sparks came into contact with the tyres hence causing the huge loss. The tyres were 400 and I was not able to salvage any,” he said.

The businessman assessed the tyres were worth Sh5,000 each, thus estimated his loss at Sh2 million. 

He further told the court that the Mombasa Municipal Fire Brigade did a report that confirmed that the loss was connected to the fault in the transformer.   

A firefighter from the county Mr Hamisi Ali, who testified in the case, confirmed that the accident was a result of the faulty transformer

He testified that when they arrived at the scene, they saw electrical sparks emanating from the transformer. The sparks, he noted, fell over to the fence next to the yard causing the tyres to go up in flames.

“We sought assistance from KP to switch off the line to enable us to extinguish the fire with ease, but they did not show up until five hours later when nothing could be salvaged,” Mr Ali said.

“I established that the cause of the fire was a short circuit,” he added.

However, Kenya Power denied liability, shifting blame to the businessman. The company said that if the accident occurred as alleged, it was due to Mr Mbarak’s “negligence, carelessness and recklessness”.

Kenya Power neither called any witnesses nor informed the court to adopt its witness statements as part of the trial court’s records. 

Its case was therefore undefended. The award came as a reprieve to Mr Mbarak, who in 2018 suffered a blow after a magistrate dismissed his claim for damages.

He had first filed this claim for damages before a magistrate court but the same was rejected on grounds that he had failed to prove the value of his destroyed property.

The magistrate did not agree with his contention that his yard had 400 tyres with a value of Sh2 million. 

Mr Mbarak then filed an appeal before the High Court, where he successfully pleaded for the damages.