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David Ndii, the Chairperson of the President’s Council on Economic Affairs, on Saturday, March 25, defended President William Ruto over claims he had a direct hand in the electricity tariff hike.
Ndii clarified that the independent regulatory body, Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), set the new tariffs.
The economists further dismissed claims that the increase was approved through a policy decision.
“It is true that as an advisor I don’t pronounce policy, but I do know that electricity tariffs are set by independent regulatory, not a policy decision,” Ndii stated.
An image of someone inserting KPLC tokens on their gadgets.
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He castigated political leaders calling out President William Ruto over tariffs hike, insisting that they were misleading the consumers regarding the powers of the Head of State.
“Politicians will tell you what they think you want to hear,” he wrote.
In the newly approved tariffs, EPRA indicated that customers using 30 units and below would be expected to pay Ksh12 per unit from Ksh10.
The regulatory body noted that customers using 100 units would pay Ksh15.80 per unit from Ksh10 previously charged.
Tariffs remained unchanged for consumers using 101-500 at Ksh15.80 per unit.
“With a view of meeting the social policy objective, the Lifeline Tariff band has been reduced from100-kilowatt hour(kWh) per month to 30kWh, to cushion and address the needs of low-income households in the society,” EPRA noted.
“Accordingly, these consumers will be cross-subsidised by the other consumer categories to protect the vulnerable members of society,” the regulatory body indicated.
Setting the new tariffs followed Kenya power’s proposal, submitted to EPRA in October 2022, to increase energy charges for the next three years.
Following a series of public participation forums, EPRA approved the charges set to take effect on Saturday, April 1.
A KPLC technician during routine transformer maintenance.
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