Scandal-hit Kenya Power kicks off search for new MD

Kenya Power has begun the search for a Managing Director almost an year since the ouster of Ken Tarus.

The scandal rocked State Corporation opened the recruitment process to its hot seat on Friday to September 6, 2019, through its hiring consultancy partner-Deloitte.

The national electricity distributor has in the intermediating time relied on the stewardship of Jared Othieno.

He is an insider appointed by Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter on an interim basis to lead the company into clear waters following the purge of managers.

Ken Tarus was arrested alongside former Chief Executive Officer Ben Chumo and nine other top-ranking bosses in a case over alleged illegal acquisition of defective transformers.

The firm has been the subject of further scrutiny after reported instances of alleged insider-schemes to inflate consumer bills and power-token theft.

Further, the firm remains under the microscope of Parliament over alleged cases of illegal connections to the grid.

Financially, the monopoly distributor remains on the stranglehold of deteriorating efficiencies.

This is in spite of recording increases in both revenues and customer base in the last financial year.

Kenya Power posted a 64 percent decline in earnings in the financial year ended June 2018 to Ksh.1.9 billion.

This after a significant delay in its computation of finances to further cast doom on the power distributor outlook.

Outgoing Auditor General Edward Ouko would later in his review of Kenya Power book’s point to anomalies in the firm’s loan provisioning and debt contracting.

His report further raised the alarm on the prudent management of the State Corporation.

In 2017, Kenya Power was further accused of ‘book cooking’ having failed to pass on Ksh.10.2 in fuel bills to consumers.