Soon after I sent off my last email on Wednesday evening regarding a few houses in our estate which had lost power since Tuesday morning and after over 24 hours of being shuttled into the dark ages by KPLC, the transformer that is responsible for our power supply, suddenly blew up with a very loud bang at about 9.00 pm.
This resulted in the whole line of houses, including my flat, losing power, too. So, the earlier few houses, now had more company.
Now, my take is that, maybe this could have been avoided IF, this monopolistic power company had addressed and solved the issue of the few houses that had lost power on Tuesday morning. They did not do this and maybe whatever it was that was ailing and caused their power to be cut off, got worse and more complicated because that was not solved...?!
Anyway, just like the KPLC, when informed of the symptoms of what had happened to their transformer immediately came and shut off everything, they could have with equal urgency and haste replaced the transformer, too, at the same time. But, they did not! Instead, when asked, we were told that, 'maybe, tomorrow....'
Yesterday, they showed up at around mid-morning to take the offending transformer and again when asked by a neighbour about when we would get our power back, the reply was very vague. She was told that maybe on Friday or even next week!!!!
No reason was given, of course. This, brought nasty thoughts to my and my neighbours' minds. This because of an earlier (a couple of weeks back), incidence of a KPLC employee who had asked for 2500/- from a company (where a friend works and who had told me about it), which had lost power for 6 days and were getting desperate. This company had personally gone to the offices of KPLC and their emergency offices, too, to get them to restore power to no avail. Why?
Therefore, we started getting suspicious about our own restoration of power and the time it would take to get back to normal supply. Maybe, there is a racket going on of fleecing the public to part with cash and giving them a hard time so that they will do so, just like our cops, etc. Seems like corruption is the order of the day in this country. We seem to be breathing, eating and literally wallowing in this horrible vice. Why, again?
Is this also the reason for the numbers of days that have suddenly increased before consumers get their power back? To harass them to the point of making them part with their hard earned cash, before 'service' is given....?!
I found out when I visited Kenya Power's Facebook page where umpteen numbers of people from all over are complaining about the same thing and using very colourful language for it, too.
Kenya Power seems to be totally impervious to all the adverse publicity that it is getting. As was mentioned by a recipient of my emails - due to its monopoly in power provision. They couldn't care less about public opinion!
Finally, after umpteen phone calls, they agreed to solve our transformer problem in the afternoon. This arrived at our gates at exactly 6.30 pm, work started on it at 6.45 pm and finally finished at 8.45 pm when everybody in the estate got their light back, Alhamdulillah.
Now, my question is - why the delay? And this not the first time that this transformer has given up the ghost. But, every time, Kenya Power seems to prefer working in the dark (literally), than in the broad light of day. Again, why? This time they had a choice to do so in the daytime, but deliberately arrived here after sunset and worked in the dark with flashlights, etc. One would imagine that it is easier and faster to work in the natural light of the sun...?!
Raziya
On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 9:34 PM, Shaileen Shah wrote:
Does ANYONE in KPLC respond ?
Mr.Shaileen Shah:a client and a SHAREHOLDER of KPLC.
