5.6 million prepaid metres updated - Kenya Power

By Peter Ochieng

Kenyans who are yet to update their prepaid (token) metres have been urged to do so, before the August 31, 2024 deadline.

Those who fail to act will be faced by disruption of services, upon expiry of the time allocated for metre update exercise.

The exercise was launched in mid-June, in what the Kenya Power company said was aimed at improving electricity access in all parts of the country.

Engineer Joseph Siror, Kenya Power's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in a signed statement on Wednesday said 5.64 million Kenyans had heeded to the company's call and updated their metres.

He said the response has been positive, from Kenyans.

"We have received a positive response to the update initiative, and we thank those who have already completed the process. We have scheduled updates for all prepaid metres, and we encourage those who have not yet done so to do so before the deadline to avoid service disruptions," he said.

The update, the CEO said, is part of a global initiative to standardise prepaid metres by implementing the Standard Transfer Specification (STS), a universal method for improving token security.

"The phased approach has helped manage customer demand and reduce system delays, making it easier for customers to purchase tokens and receive update codes."

To update a metre, a customer must first purchase at least one unit of electricity and enter the codes provided in the token SMS.

Kenya Power will then sent two codes via SMS.

The codes are a reset code and an updated code.

Before updating, customers should ensure that all previous tokens have been loaded into their metres.

Apart from the SMS notification, customers can also access the prepaid metre update codes through the company's self service platform *977# which also serves as backup incase the SMS notification is lost.

Prepaid metres that will not have been updated by the end of the set deadline will not accept electricity tokens.

The updating process is free of charge. Kenya Power targets to upgrade 7.4 million prepaid metres by the end of the exercise.

South Nyanza, North Rift and western Kenya regions are reportedly lagging behind in the campaign.