POWER OUTAGES AND FLUCTUATIONS - 1

 Early on the morning of Saturday 11th March 2023, before 3.00 am, our power went. Tried to call Kenya Power's engineers to no avail. None of them was answering. After over an hour, one answered and was told it would take another hour to restore.

Unfortunately, this did not happen and when at 6.00 am we were still suffering in this awful heat, and I called, again no answer and when finally one of them, did, was told it would take another hour! Yet, a few minutes after hanging up, the power mercifully returned. So, why was this engineer lying to me? 

This is one of the reasons we don't have any confidence in these people and suspect that they don't work 24 hours as the long-suffering public is made to believe, but can only work during daylight hours. Kenya Power has lost its credibility with the public (consumers), whom they are supposed to serve because they do not keep its word and even lies to us. 

Forget about transparency, they are not even translucent but extremely OPAQUE!!!

Then, just after about 36 hours of the above outage of over 3 hours, we had another one of these outage/fluctuations yesterday (12th March 2023), late afternoon. Again, there was no response when called and while the power returned after a couple of minutes, these play havoc with our electrical devices, and the regulators they are attached to, start malfunctioning. Who will pay for this damage?

This missive has the number 1 in the title. Henceforth, I will start numbering these fluctuations/outages so that both the receiving public and Kenya power for their record will be able to tell how often this happens with their so-called services.

PERSISTANT OUTAGES AND FLUCTUATIONS EVERYDAY!

This morning we had at least 2 outages and fluctuations with a matter of 15 minutes. Why?

And as usual, no response to calls, either. Why?

Can Kenya Power PLEASE get its act together and work more efficiently to give us with a consistent supply of power where our electrical devices will not malefunction? Otherwise, the long suffering consumers might entertain the possibility of demanding compensation for damage/s for their AWFUL 'SERVICES'...!

Considering the hefty bills we have to foot every month, it is high time we, consumers, demanded and equally responsible and accountable service in return.

WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR CONSTANT OUTAGES...?!

 On Saturday, 4th March 2023, once again nearly the WHOLE COUNTRY lost power! Most of us do not know the reason why, but we have noticed that since late last year that there have been too many of these national outages. Why? Are we in a war 'mode' or suffering from some natural catastrophe which is usually the reason when nations suffer from such incidences?

Kenya Power, which has proved itself to be a very insolent outfit of late which takes its customers for granted due to it being the ONLY one that supplies us with this commodity, does not deem it fit to either answer our frantic calls and/or give an explanation and apology for the outage. 

On that fateful Saturday, we were forced to 'time' travel to a time before Mankind discovered electricity and put it to use for itself and developed further... In the sweltering heat and humidity of the coast, we had to suffer for over 4 HOURS without knowing when we would be put out of our misery.

None of the local engineers were answering their phones initially and when one of them finally, did, he could not give any specific time scale WHEN it would be back! When cornered, he told me 3 to 4 hours, but when the 3 hours were up and I called him again I  was told that it would take another 3 hours!!!!

Then, today the power went off, yet again in the morning and KP  wouldn't answer their phones. When this happens, we are left wondering what caused the outage, if it is country-wide, again, and how long it will last for... All of this is extremely frustrating for those of us who rely a lot on power. 

What is the matter with our monopolistic and EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE power company? They are becoming more and more insolent by the day...

KENYA POWER AND ITS UNJUST 'SERVICE'!

Why does Kenya Power even entertain increasing its tariffs when it CANNOT provide a reliable service? The problem with our highly monopolistic power company is that they love the money with the least amount of work! 

They DO NOT care that while they are increasing their tariffs, their 'service' heads in the opposite direction which causes its customers a HUGE loss for their constant fluctuations and outages - at times more than 3 in a day e.g. yesterday - result in our electrical appliances to 'die' on us and we, its customers end up with added losses and damage and we have to pay our hard-earned money to for fixing these AND pay their hefty bills. This is akin to adding salt to a festering wound and for the information of those who have not studied their power bills; what we actually pay for their 'dirty' power consumption, ironically, is less than the umpteen taxes that are listed in that bill.

Now, can our redoubtable power company please explain to us why they keep increasing their tariffs while their so-called services go in the opposite direction without a thought to the effect it has on its consumers and their many electrical appliances and any sense of responsibility for the damage caused? 

NEVER ENDING OUTAGES AND FLUCTUATIONS..

Since the last nationwide outage that Kenya Power put us through, we, in Nyali have been suffering from almost daily outages and/or fluctuations.

When the power goes off, we never know how long this outage will be for as well as when we try to call them, there is no response.

Kenya Power is one of the most monopolistic outfits imaginable as they have no sense of responsibility or remorse for their nationwide customers whom they treat with utter disrespect!

They are also irresponsible since they will not be held accountable for any of our electrical devices that 'die' thanks to their erratic power supply.

When cornered into giving a response, they will give none and will try and get out of giving us a reason for the numerous outages. This makes us, their clients, to speculate which leads to the rampant corruption that our country suffers from.... Because a 'straight' company would not be as opaque as KP is. They are anything but transparent!

Can KP give us an answer, please?

OUTAGES GALORE! Thanks to Kenya Power

 Since the last time I wrote, we have been suffering from outages EVERY SINGLE DAY and not just once, but several. 

One example is today. We've already had two outages (very brief ones), since morning. These, while they are of short duration, still do our many electrical devices a lot of harm. Unfortunately, Kenya Power has scant regard for the damage their disgusting and unaccountable power does to our equipment. They don't care in the least!

When one calls them, IF THEY RESPOND , they will give you no satisfying answer and therefore we have to literally jump to our own conclusions which immediately lead us to the ever present corruption that our whole country is so steeped in.

Are our perpetual outages due to some sub-standard equipment they are using in the process somebody somewhere is pocketing a huge amount of money while purchasing questionable standard of stuff....?! Or something to that effect....

Since independence Kenya Power has changed many names but has instead of improving 'service' is continually regressing instead of being accountable and responsible. They are anything but!

It is no wonder that there are many Kenyans out there who can afford it, are opting for an alternative to depending on our monopolistic power company.

May we have an explanation on why we keep having umpteen numbers of outages on any given day? And for how long these will carry on?

KENYA POWER AND ITS ERRATIC SERVICES...

 Kenya Power's services seem to be inversely proportional to what they charge the public for them. Have you noticed that in the past two months we've had those many country-wide outages (no reason given), where we are forcibly transported to an age before electricity was discovered and used by the majority of Mankind?

The last such incident was on the 24th of November 2022, and since then, we in Mombasa, at least, have been having umpteen numbers of outages and/or fluctuations EVERYDAY! These play HAVOC with our various electrical equipment even if we have these gadgets to supposedly protect them from these frequent misbehaviour by our questionable power company. When these 'die', the electricals they are 'protecting', also die. So, will our AWFUL power company be responsible enough to pay for the damages when their shoddy 'services' damage our electrical equipment? 

Of course, NOT! They are extremely IRRESPONSIBLE, UNPROFESSIONAL, UNETHICAL and are responsible in making this country one of the most EXPENSIVE and AWFUL to live in! One gets the impression that we, too, are in a war like Ukraine and Russia, but, in those countries outages hardly last like ours do. If they did, the population there would collectively be frozen stiff considering the current weather there!!!

Coming back to Kenya and it's numerous taxes that it requires us to pay for this shoddy and questionable electricity. What services are we getting in return for these umpteen taxes? And unpredictable and nasty power supply...? There is also the matter of them 'seeing' the 'environmental' light and start depending on our ever present SUN and start replacing fossil fuels with sustainable power sources. I wonder if Kenya Power is seriously doing this?

KENYA POWER, get your act together and STOP charging us an arm and a leg for your shoddy so-called 'services'!

Noise galore!

It is no wonder that every year, Coast Province in general and Mombasa in particular performs abysmally low academically compared to the rest of the country.

One wonders why, naturally. There are many reasons, of course, but one of them is that the level of NOISE in this county is awful!

Imagine that you are a visitor here and entering Mombasa for the first time. One of the main things that will hit you will be the level of noise and next is the overflowing garbage all over town (city....?!), and the resulting smell and unhealthy environment.

Starting from the traffic to the promotions of various things is done with ear-splitting 'music' using huge speakers, certain tuk tuks which are diesel powered, heavy transport, matatus and private vehicles equally playing loud music which one can hear even if those vehicles' windows were closed, etc., give no thought to the fact that they are polluting the environment.

Of course, to add to all this racket are the religious noises emanating from mosques and churches

Then in this day and age when fuel is so expensive, there is no improvement in the way all these vehicles are operated. Meaning that when they are dropping off people or delivering goods somewhere. They leave their vehicles on idle and the noise and fumes that they give out have to be experienced to appreciate what I am talking about.

Since this is an election year, our recycled politicians, instead of obeying the environmental laws, go about everywhere, with huge speakers tied to various vehicles promoting themselves with - again, you've guessed it - AWFUL 'MUSIC'!

Unfortunately, despite having environmental laws regarding noise pollution, none of our environmental officials - country and county wide seem to be doing their jobs of enforcing these laws and so they have become as good as not being there, anymore, utterly USELESS!

And so now to get back to the initial point of all this noisy environment interfering with our children who are trying to study. They don't and cannot and hence, this county is one of those that hardly ever produce outstanding academic scholars, unfortunately.

POSTA employees...

I subscribe to Mpost which is a very convenient and cheaper option (if you don't get too much mail everyday), our POSTA has come up with since the last few years. One does not have to rent a box, but uses our phone number (unfortunately only a safaricom number can be used for this service), instead of a box number to receive mail.

How it works is that when we get mail, the nearest POSTA to us, the zip code we registered under and which we use with our phone number, will send a SMS to us to come and pick our mail.

And as you will see in my signature line below, I happen to be a registered user of this service since its inception.

Now, one would think that this is so convenient and great. But, not so, unfortunately. Of course, our mail still can get lost/stolen like it does with regular box subscribers, but I discovered yesterday to my misfortune that due to POSTA's employees some of whom lack in commonsense and competency, they can really frustrate and cause needless expense in these days of high cost of living.

I got a notification yesterday (28th April 2022), mid-morning that I should collect my mail from Mkomani Posta. Since I am not very mobile, I usually send somebody else to pick my mail and until now have not had a problem till yesterday. I sent my house-help to pick my mail as she usually does, but when she got there the person manning the place was not the same one with whom she is familiar and she was told that I should go there in person with my ID to pick it.

Well, my girl came back and informed me that there was a new person there and she insisted that I have to go there myself with my ID. Now, this is not possible for the reasons stated above (the POSTA seniors), know this, too, and so I sent my girl back with my ID and also sent a SMS to Mkomani telling her that since I cannot come there in person, I was re-sending my girl to pick my mail and that she should be given it.

Unfortunately, this poor girl bounced again because this horrible person very rudely told her that it was not acceptable according to POSA regulations for anybody else to pick the mail other than the person whose mail it was and that I MUST go there myself with my ID. It mattered not in the least to her that I had given my ID to my house-help to show her as well as the fact that I had also sent her the SMS!

Now, my househelp comes to work only 2 days a week and this was the last day of work till after a 5 days break. I also live alone and so have no other person I can ask to go and collect my mail for me.

Therefore, I was in a dilemma and decided to call the Regional Manager of POSTA Mr. George Andati, who mercifully immediately answered my phone and listened to my problem patiently and promised that he would try and deal with it and get back to me.

He did so within a few minutes and told me that the matter was being dealt with by the person (I could not get his name due to hearing problems), in charge of these people who work at outlying post offices within the county.

The woman at Mkomani sent me a SMS again, telling me to go and pick my mail and could send my house-help as her boss had told her. Unfortunately, by this time my girl had gone home so I sent a message to Mr. Andati via WhatsApp that I no longer had the househelp at home and had no one else to send. Therefore, this person at Mkomani Posta, should deliver my mail to me instead at her own expense which would teach her a lesson!

This was not acceptable to POSTA's high command for some reason. That employee also called me just about half an hour before closure time to apologize and that I could now send my house-help to pick my mail. The tone that she was using was a metamorphosis from the previous nasty, horribly rude creature who had been answering my calls.

So, now I still have not got my mail and will only get it till sometime next week when my house-help comes to work.

Can POSTA please explain to me why this employee of theirs has been lacking so much in commonsense that despite being told of my circumstances and despite being presented with my ID, she refused to part with my mail? And she really was very horrible and rude on the phone as well as to my girl when she went to collect my mail - both times!

I wish our POSTA would start joining the rest of the majority of the countries of the world where mail is delivered at home, offices, etc. It would really help...

Virus-free. www.avast.com

NHIF, outpatient facilities and the doctors available..

I had to visit the Wellcare Medical centre last tuesday (12th October 2021), for a problem which was getting worse by the day. 

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long to see a doctor after I had gone through the initial process at the reception after I presented my NHIF card.

The doctor is a GP (I think), who asked to see my health issue and when I showed it to him, he 'jumped' away and was very upset telling me that what I had was very contagious and the name he gave me was something I had heard about, but did not know much else. Anyway, I was given some medicines to be applied to the site and told to even get my place fumigated!

The medicines, after more than 3 days of usage, did not make the slightest difference and the problem got even worse! Also, as soon as I got home from the clinic, I went online to find out more about the problem I was supposed to be suffering from and found that I could only have 'caught' it from another human in close contact or if I'd shared my personal stuff with another who suffered from the same problem.

Now, I live on my own and hardly get any 'chance' to be in that kind of close contact with anybody and especially during these covid times, it is better to keep as far away as possible from another person. Covid-19 has made all of us very anti-social where we don't shake hands nor hug another however close the person might be to one.

Therefore, I could not imagine how I might have contracted this stupid disease. Also, even I, as a lay person, could see that the pictures and description did not match with what I had. So, how did this doctor jump, to the conclusion that he did? 

Therefore, I decided to see a dermatologist at my own cost and found out that it was a fungal and non-contagious problem which was easily dealt with whose effect I could see within 24 hours! 

 

Therefore, my contention is that what kind of doctors are we producing? Who don't make the effort and take the time to really find out more about the patients they are treating and their problems. Because, if this doctor had taken the time and made the effort, he would have found out that considering my circumstances, it was not very likely for me to have picked up a contagious disease and then made further efforts to find out what it really was. And if he couldn't understand, then he could have referred me to a dermatologist.

So, is the reason he behaved the way he did, due to his limited knowledge and/or because NHIF has this agreement with these outpatient clinics to make sure that they are not charged a huge amount, or what? I am saying this because in the past, I've been given wrong medicines, have had to pay extra for some further treatment, etc.

What happens with people who are NHIF members who do not have access to all the info that I had to find the truth and/or don't bother following up on such laxity? Maybe, they could even die due to being wrongly diagnosed!

Can all the people concerned, please, get their act together and make sure that NHIF members really DO get quality healthcare at their accredited facilities and that the patients who go there are not just suffering from 'simple' everyday diseases and investigate properly before prescribing those medicines?!