Town hall in darkness as Kenya Power demands 1.5 billion shillings in debt

Counties

Town hall in darkness as Kenya Power demands 1.5 billion shillings in debt

Friday 03 December 2021

The Nairobi County Council Governor’s Office at City Hall. PHOTO | KANYIRI WAHITO | NMG

Town hall is once again plunged into darkness after Kenya Power #ticker: KPLC cut off electricity supply to county government offices.

The power cut, which has lasted for 10 days, represents a debt of more than 1.5 billion shillings to the utility company by the administration led by Ann Kananu.

This saw the town hall annex left in the dark while the main town hall and county assembly wing were forced to use generators.

Kenya County Government Workers Union staff section secretary in Nairobi, Festus Ngari, said the power cut crippled some essential services at town hall, forcing several workers to not show up for work.

“Disabled and elderly staff are at a great disadvantage because they have to use stairs to access their offices because the elevators are not working,” he said.

The town hall and the annex to the town hall suffered the same fate for more than a week between October 21 and 28 with water cuts at the taps and flushing, elevators grounded, computers, security and electrical systems also immobilized.

This despite the fact that the county paid 50 million shillings this month to reduce the arrears it owes the utility company.

It took the intervention of the national government for Kenya Power to restore power to the town hall after the two institutions entered into a payment plan that will result in full payment of the 1.55 billion shillings debt.

The town hall admitted that the power cut resulted in the disruption of various activities within the county government.

Nairobi’s chief financial officer Mohamed Sahal has written to the budget comptroller about the matter, asking Margaret Nyakang’o’s office to release Sh100 million as a down payment to Kenya Power.

The expenses, he said, will then be regularized through the supplementary budget for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022.

In a letter dated November 30, 2021, Mr Sahal said Kenya Power issued a 1.5 billion shillings notice on November 9, 2021, at a time when the county government is still in the process of launching a supplementary budget. .

“In light of the above, we request your consideration and approval of Kenya Power 100 million shillings from Nairobi County Revenue Fund Account No.100011863 to Nairobi County Recurring Account No.1000171502 to facilitate the payment ”, we read in part in the letter.

Kenya Power and the town hall have been at odds over debt arrears since 2014, with the county government claiming Kenya Power also owes it more than 800 million shillings in arrears of vacation and rent.

The first blackout occurred in January 2015, when the town hall was plunged into darkness for three days after it was disconnected by Kenya Power due to an electricity supply debt inherited from the defunct city council.

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