INFLUENCE OF STRATEGIC PLANS ADOPTED BY THE KENYA POWER COMPANY ON THE SUPPLY OF POWER IN NAIROBI COUNTY SLUMS
Mwanthi Kalekye Betty - Master of Business Administration, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Kepha Ombui - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Dr. Assumptah Kagiri - Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The Kenya Power Company Limited core business is to transmit and distribute electricity supply to its customers ranging from domestic, small and medium enterprises to industrial customers. Reliable, safe, adequate and high quality power supply is a necessity for enhanced economic growth of the country. The company’s efforts to efficiently supply electricity in Nairobi County slums have been hampered by several challenges, prompting the company to come up with strategies to mitigate these challenges. The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of strategic plans adopted by KPC in the supply of power in Nairobi County slums; KPC has adopted several strategies with the aim of improving customer service delivery in slum areas. The study has adopted a descriptive survey design which ensured an in depth description of the subject under study with a target population of respondents from Kenya Power management, union and contract staff in Nairobi West, Nairobi North and Nairobi South sub regions in Distribution and Customer Service divisions in Nairobi Region. An open ended and closed ended structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the respondents in a drop-and-pick later method. The completed questionnaires were checked for completeness, coded and finally entered into the computer for analysis using Microsoft Excel software. Descriptive data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented the results in form of frequency tables, bar graphs and pie charts. This offered a systematic and qualitative description of the objective of the study. The research findings enabled KPC to close any gaps in supply of power in Nairobi County slums and ensured strategies formed were implemented and tracked to ensure their efficiency in positively influencing their adoption. The study found out that media campaigns encourage change in behavior as a result of customer education and community agent intermediation, pricing of electricity allows competition with illegal operators when high, calls for price subsidy for affordability, slows down customer creation and accelerates theft of electricity when high; government policy implications are on lack of review of penalties for dealing with power theft culprits, legislation in such areas as price control, monopolistic practices, slum negligence resulting to insecurity which interferes with attendance to system breakdowns; modern use of technology promotes quick attendance to system breakdowns curbing unnecessary delays, reduces system overload, reduces avenue for extortionist cartels, leads to decreased emergency power interruptions and incorporates safety standards. The study concludes that media was used to reach out slum residents in order to influence their behavior and encourage change, pricing when high allows competition with illegal operators in the slums, lenient penalties for dealing with power theft culprits encourages electricity theft and technological advancement by Kenya power reduces non-technical losses.
