The High Court has barred Kenya Power from sending customers inflated bills to recover Sh8.1 billion.
The figure was initially Sh10.1 billion but Sh2 billion was recovered.
Justice Chacha Mwita
issued the
temporary orders on Thursday after lawyer Apollo Mboya
and the Electricity Consumers
Society filed
a class action suit against Kenya Power.
The order will remain until the case is heard and determined on January
30.
There has been public uproar over by the electricity supplier.
Read:
The backdated
Sh10.1 billion
is
contained in KPLC's annual report and financial statements for
the year
ending June 30, 2017.
Mboya wants the company stopped from disconnecting electricity based on the report which, he notes, carries inflated and backdated bills and estimates.
"The court should issue an order directing the company to refund consumers payments made in excess of actual meter readings, on account of the said recovery as contained in its financial
estimates."
The petitioners
want the court
to issue
an order directing the Auditor General to form a commission, to conduct a detailed financial
and operational
forensic audit, to establish the amount that should be recovered.
They also want the court to declare that the company made a false and misleading representation of electricity tariffs and bills to
its consumers, thereby infringing on their rights.
He says the amount was not factored into bills sent so far.
The applicants further contend that Kenya Power, in a letter dated January 10, admitted that there were errors.
Mboya, who is former Law Society of Kenya chairman, further says the monopoly Kenya Power enjoys is unconstitutional.