Kenya Power loses Ksh.35M in electricity tokens scandal

Kenya Power now says it lost over Ksh.35 million in power tokens irregularly sold to customers between January 2018 and February 2019.

In a brief to the Energy Committee at the senate on Wednesday, KPLC revealed shocking details of how thousands of Kenyans were duped into purchasing irregularly issued tokens.

Behind the fraudulent scheme was a well-coordinated team led by 13 masterminds, all working at the power distributor.

“The 23 staff involved have already faced disciplinary action and action taken against them as per the company’s procedures and regulations…,” said KPLC AG Jared Othieno.

According to Engineer Othieno, over 2500 Kenyans bought tokens worth Ksh.35, 280, 567 between January 2018 and February 2019.

The irregularly generated tokens were found to have been sent to customers through unofficial channels.

All the transactions were found to have been relayed to customers through personal lines. One such number had transacted close to Ksh.8 million.

The Senators were however curious to know how a well-developed system could allow generation of such a big amount of tokens without the company’s knowledge for a whole year.

“Internally, the staff that occasioned loses to the public exploiting innocent Kenyans…what recourse does the public get?” queried Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula.

The question of price fluctuation on tokens also came up with Senators probing the reasons as to why prices are not predictable.

In its defence, Kenya Power said it has instituted control measures including engaging an independent ICT auditor to audit all systems and enhancing its billing system to ensure segregation of responsibilities and structured mechanism of approvals.

After KPLC admitted that fraudsters managed to access their system, Senators now want more control measures employed and the identified weaknesses addressed fully to safeguard the KPLC ICT system.