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{
    "id": 1240391,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1240391/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 614,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Davis Chirchir",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "On the Question by Hon. Nyenze, the Member for Kitui West, on stolen prepaid meters, let me give a general answer that currently, we are working very closely with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration. We have a committee where my Principal Secretary, who is currently in the House, works with Bwana Amolo, Principal Secretary for Ministry of Interior and National Administration, to curtail the theft of transformers and meters. We had a challenge of meters between early last year and towards the end of the year when an award for purchase of prepaid meters was taken to court, and for a long time, we were not completing connections and desperate customers would go out of their way... We have since procured meters and we have many meters and connections are going on now, and we think that should reduce the theft of meters because it was exacerbated by the fact that meters were missing. When you have wired your house and Kenya Power has brought the power to where the meters would be, it becomes a state of desperation. Sometimes even power losses were being exacerbated through illegal connections because of that. On the Question by the Member for Garissa Town, I do not know when Hon. Barrow was last home. We started out in Garissa in the last one or two weeks. We had some mismatch challenges on balancing transformers. We have separated the connections for rural customers and the town customers, and I can confirm that the challenge that we had in Garissa Town was sorted out in the last 10 days. I would like Mheshimiwa to confirm that when he travels home next. I am very certain that the challenge that we had in Garissa has been addressed. On the Question by Hon. Kemei, the Member for Kericho County on lack of meters, I have answered that. We have adequate meters and we have also allowed REREC to buy meters. REREC will be connecting meters instead of waiting for Kenya Power to connect the meters. So, we should be able to accelerate our connections and even see lesser power losses, because there were a number of losses due to illegal connections occasioned by lack of meters. Hon. Ronald from Kipkelion West asked about governance issues. We will continue to work on governance of Kenya Power so that we do not have unscrupulous employees who basically connect, disconnect, and sell the same meter to a number of customers. It is something we can address. If it is an employee connecting, unless it is also tied to the meter theft, we should be able to address that through governance programmes."
}