Aston Lukoye
Kenya Power has announced temporary system maintenance which will impact the purchase of tokens.
In a statement dated Thursday, March 30, the monopoly power firm stated that the temporary disruption will last for 12 hours, starting midnight on Friday, March 31 till Saturday, April 1 at 11.00.
The maintenance exercise will also affect the checking of token details.
“We wish to inform you that we will carry out a system maintenance from Friday 31.03.2023 at midnight to Saturday 1.04.2023 at 11.00 am.
“As a result, the purchase of prepaid tokens and checking of token details via *977# and myPower App will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience caused,” stated Kenya Power.
The date the period will lapse coincides with plans to make Kenyans pay more for electricity from April 1 following the approval of higher tariffs by Kenya Power from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA).
The approval announced on Friday evening, March 24 will see electricity prices from next week go up by 63 percent, one which aims to raise more money to fund the upgrade of its aging distribution systems.
In the first review, EPRA raised base power prices to Ksh12.22 per unit from Ksh10 for those consuming below 30 units, an increase of 22.2 percent.
Those consuming between 30-100 units won’t be spared as the cost increased from Ksh10 to Ksh16.3, a 63 percent jump.
Those consuming more than 100 units of electricity will pay Ksh20.97 per unit up from Ksh15.8 currently, a 32 percent increase.
On January 1, President William Ruto refuted claims that the cost of electricity and cost of living would increase in 2023, noting that the new costs were implemented in September 2022 which had caused price increase towards the end of the year.
“I would like to allay fears being spread that there will be an increase in the cost of electricity. I want to ensure the country that we removed subsidies in August.
“There will be no additional charges today or going into the future on electricity bills,” the President affirmed.
