Kenya Power Intervenes After Caretaker Steals Power, Almost Blows Up House

Kenya Power was recently forced to disconnect power supply to a residence in Diani, Kwale County after its caretaker was found to be siphoning power and leaving the residents in the dark.

A resident who spoke to Viral Tea on Sunday, January 28 revealed that the monopoly power firm disconnected the residence from the power grid in response to a reported illegal connection.

The resident found out that an individual was tapping into the power grid and stealing, and upon inquiry, it was discovered that the caretaker was at fault.

"KPLC has been advertising and begging Kenyans to report illegal connections of power.

"So the other day they disconnected our power because someone has been tapping and stealing so we went to the office and found out it was the caretaker," the resident, who claimed to be threatened, told Viral Tea.

Furthermore, the resident revealed that the caretaker paid the debt manager in charge of Kwale County, a matter that almost blew up the token meter boxes, which would have led to devastating consequences.

Screenshots of WhatsApp messages seen by Viral Tea revealed that the manager of a hotel in Diani had issued an ultimatum to clear building materials and the removal of excavation spoil from the road reserve, a matter he stated would be added to pending service charges.

The manager also cautioned against locking meter boxes with padlocks, a warning which was ignored, to which he threatened stern action should the padlocks not be removed from the meter boxes as it was allegedly the property of Kenya Power.

Kenya Power was yet to issue a statement on the matter by the time of publishing this article as attempts by Viral Tea to seek clarification from the officials bore no fruit.

On November 16, 2023, Kenya Power teamed up with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to fight the rising cases of vandalism and protect electricity equipment.

Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Joseph Siror said the firm recorded a 46 per cent rise in cases of transformer vandalism in the last financial year which affected 242 transformers compared to 165 units that were vandalized during the previous year.

“We have witnessed a recent surge in cases of vandalism and illegal connections across the country leading to unplanned power outages that inconvenience our customers.

"The Company is working with various security agencies, including collaboration with the DCI, to tackle these illegal activities and are confident that this will boost our capacity to proactively fight vandalism and other crimes through an intelligence-led approach,” Siror remarked at the move, which saw the DCI deploy 42 officers to work hand in hand with Kenya Power.

472 cases relating to vandalism, theft of energy equipment and damage to energy infrastructure have been reported since last year July.

Illegal connections and fraudulent consumption of electricity account for 320 while 33 people were arrested for way leave encroachment.