Kenya Power operations were disrupted on Monday, February 24, 2025, after garbage was dumped at their headquarters at Stima Plaza in what appears to be an ongoing dispute over unpaid bills.
Speaking on the incident on February 24, 2025, Kenya Power’s General Manager for Commercial Services and Sales, Rosemary Oduor, accused staff from the Nairobi County government of the act.
She attributed the incident to Kenya Power’s recent decision to disconnect electricity supply to county government installations for non-payment.
“This morning, we had our work going on, then all of a sudden, we realized that there were County Government trucks with garbage. One of them came and dropped the garbage right in front of our Commercial offices at Stima Plaza. Several other trucks with garbage are still on standby around the building,” Oduor stated.
Oduor also revealed that they had experienced water disconnections and sewer blockages at various offices within Nairobi County.
“This morning, for unknown reasons, the county decided to place garbage at our doors, preventing us from serving Kenyans. We do not understand why they have chosen to take this route,” Oduor stated.
Payment dispute
According to Oduor, the confrontation stems from a long-standing issue over unpaid electricity bills by Nairobi City County.
Despite reaching an agreement in November 2024, for the county to start settling its arrears, no payments have been made.
“Over the last two years, we went to a process together with them to look at their dispute and the process is just near completion. We had an arrangement with them and we agreed, at the end of last year, we sat together and we agreed that the bills that had been reconciled so far they will start paying. They committed that they will start paying as of November but since that time they have not met the end of their bargain,” she explained.
This prompted Kenya Power to send multiple reminders to the county, but with no response.
As a result, Kenya Power took action by disconnecting power at county installations, a decision Oduor emphasized, was necessary to uphold financial sustainability within the energy sector.
“We have written reminders to them without response and last week we went ahead and disabled the supply at their installations because of unpaid bills. Having bills that are unpaid renders a dent to the energy sector and this is not acceptable,” she stated.
Attempted resolution
Oduor expressed surprise at Monday’s events, disclosing that after the disconnection, Nairobi County officials wrote to Kenya Power with a renewed commitment to settle their outstanding payments and power was restored on Friday, February 21, 2025.
“Last week after we disconnected their supplies they wrote to us and committed themselves to how they will make good their default following our arrangement in November. After coming back to us on Friday, we restored their supplies and we knew the issue had been addressed amicably,” she said.
However, Kenya Power has been unable to reach county officials for further dialogue.
“We have tried to reach out to make calls to them. They have refused to communicate with us and therefore we will continue to pursue and resolve this so that we get back to work,” Oduor added.
At the time of publishing, there had been no official response from Nairobi City County regarding the incident.
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