The Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Mohamed Amin, Monday urged the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) to reconsider its approach of dealing with unpaid electricity bills from government institutions.
Amin said indiscriminate power outages could have disastrous consequences.
He said some institutions offer critical services to the public in general that need caution before moving to disconnect power.
Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee on Administration and Internal Security at County Hall, Amin emphasized the importance of dialogue over abrupt power outages, noting that some of the affected institutions provide critical services to Kenyans.
“KPLC should reconsider switching off power to government institutions. They once disconnected us—a move we considered ill-advised and totally unnecessary,” said the DCI.
“Hospitals and other essential institutions must not be put at risk due to outstanding bills when dialogue can be employed to find amicable solutions.”
The issue of unpaid electricity bills has long been a source of contention between KPLC and various government agencies, including the Nairobi City County Government and other counties.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja echoed Amin’s concerns, emphasizing that cutting off power to critical institutions can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.
“We have institutions that owe us a lot of money in wayleaves and land rates, but we don’t disconnect their services,” Sakaja stated.
“Police stations and other government agencies, for instance, owe us close to a billion shillings, yet we have never clamped them. The same approach should be applied by KPLC.”
The governor advocated for a more structured approach to resolving and recovering outstanding bills, arguing that the county and national governments should negotiate rather than take punitive measures.
“We owe the national government, and they owe us. The best way forward is to sit down and reconcile the debts. If we owe each other, we should offset the bills instead of taking extreme actions like power disconnections,” he added.
The standoff between KPLC and City Hall over unpaid bills sparked bitter confrontations which ended up seeing garbage being dumped at the power utility’s offices.
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