Dear Kenyans, Fasten Your Belts, Higher Power Bills are coming your way

If you thought that your pockets will have a breathing space as far as power bills are concerned for the month of February, you are wrong. You should instead fasten your belt, dig deeper into your pockets and prepare to pay higher power bills.

Most Kenyan expected that power bills would be lower this month after it hit an all-time in January after the Kenya Power and Lighting Company sort to recover the costs of having used diesel-powered generators to generate electricity.

At the end of the month, homes that have been consuming 200-kilowatt hours will still pay 4,068 shillings an equivalent of 201.34 shillings per unit.

Those who will consume 50 units monthly will be parting with 682 shillings according to the information given by the Energy Regulatory Commission, (ERC).

The month of January recorded the highest monthly power consumption. During the month, Kenyans consumed 918.9 million units.

ERC has since raised the fuel levy to 4.51 shillings, the highest in 40 months. In January, the levy was at 4.30 shillings per kilowatt. The forex levy is however down by 0.21 shillings.

The rise in fuel prices has been blamed for the skyrocketing cost of living for most Kenyan households with the rise in foodstuffs, transport costs and other social amenities.

During the month of February, ERC raised fuel prices to an all-time high in 40 months with COTU blaming cartels for being behind the ‘unreasonable fuel price rise.”

According to the recent fuel prices, Petrol is now up by 1.62 shillings to 107.92 shillings per liter in Nairobi. Diesel is now up by 2.14 shillings to 96.96 shillings per liter in Nairobi. Diesel is widely used by commercial vehicles and in powering machines in industries.

Kerosene has been hiked to 76.75 shillings per liter, a 1.97 shilling increase according to data released by the Energy and Regulatory Commission (ERC).