Another Nationwide Blackout is Looming As Kenya Power Staff Plan Strike

A crisis, which could cause another nationwide blackout is looming after Kenya Power staff threatened to go on strike over the company’s impending mass layoff targeting 20 percent of its employees or nearly 2,000 who are largely aging.

The employees, through the Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union (KETAWU) have opposed the planned retrenchments, saying that they have not been involved in the plan.

The job cuts are part of Kenya Power’s efforts to run a lean operation and compensate for revenue losses that followed the January cut in electricity prices by up to 15 percent.

According to the power supplier’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Rosemary Oduor, the phased voluntary employee separation (VES) exercise will send home 1,962 employees and replace them with 830 younger staff at a cheaper cost.

“The company, because of low attrition rate, has an aging and expensive workforce resulting in staff cost growing at nearly twice the rate of revenue growth,” Oduor previously said in an internal circular dated January 24.

“The management is hereby advised to withdraw its proposal dated January 24, 2022, to pre-empt massive withdrawal of labor or otherwise until the constitutional rights of workers are respected and actualized,” stated Ketawu Secretary-General Ernest Nadome.

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The strike could damage Kenya’s economy with power outages. The boycott threat comes just weeks after three senior managers at Kenya Power were charged with sabotage and negligence over a nationwide power outage last month.

The program is set to be implemented in May through June 2023 and will see the current Kenya Power employee count of 9,843 falls to 8,711. Additionally, the exercise will set Kenya Power back an estimated Ksh5.3 billion.

Kenya Power’s salaries and wages rose 32.3 percent to Sh16.7 billion in the four years to June 2021 when its workforce shrank to 10, 177 from 11, 133 the period under review.

The jump in payroll costs despite reduced staff numbers indicates that the salaries for those who remained on the payroll rose significantly.

In January, the company trimmed its commercial and technical losses, opening the door for the much-publicized 15 percent cut to electricity tariffs.