Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has fired a total of 110 employees who were found guilty of fraud, illegal connections and other crimes within the company.
According to Kenya Power, in a statement released on Thursday, the 110 employees have been fired within the past one year and that the dismissal did not happen at once en masse.
“Most illegal power connections are in the urban settings and Nairobi is most affected. Our interest is not to punish the residents but to offer them an alternative, safer power connections,” Said Kenya Power Managing Director Benard Ngugi.
According to Kenya Power, the company loses at least 20 percent in revenues from fraud and illegal connections that are “rampant in most urban centers, especially Nairobi.”
The power company has seen some of its employees, in conjunction with other criminals, inflate power bills for customers by giving them false reading, diverting M-Pesa payment transactions to their accounts and aiding illegal connection of power that has seen the company lose millions in revenues.
The company has now started rooting out “criminal employees” as well as updating their systems and cushioning them against being manipulated.
Running Into Losses
In the latest financial results, Kenya Power posted 92 percent reduced profits for the that ended December 31, 2019, during the release of its unaudited trading results.
KPLC, however, registered a 17.8 percent increase in revenue during the period under revenue. The net earnings for the year stood at 334 million shillings, a drop from 4,968 million shillings recorded in 2018.
The drop in the net earnings for the year 2019 for KPLC has been attributed to the increase in non-fuel power purchase costs by 18,083 million shillings from 52,795 million shillings in 2018 to 70,978 million shillings in 2019.
“Revenue from electricity sales grew by 16,994 million shillings from 95,435 million shillings the previous year to 112,429 million shillings,” said Imelda Bosire, the KPLC Secretary.
READ: Kenya Power And Lighting Posts 92% Drop In Profits For 2019