A Shorter Token: Kenya Power Units Cost KSh 4.10 More in October

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority notice of 9 October sets three lines on the October metre. Thermal stations add KSh 3.22 a kilowatt-hour. Dollar-denominated power-purchase contracts add 87 cents, applied to September readings. The water authority levy adds 1.34 cents, applied to October readings. Together that is KSh 4.10 a unit.

A home using 100 units pays KSh 410 more. At 200 units the extra is KSh 820. A shop using 500 units pays KSh 2,050 more. These sums sit on top of the tariff a customer already had. They are not a change to the price of petrol.

The thermal line is the cost of the stations that cover the evening peak when dams and geothermal wells fall short. The dollar line is the contract. Many power-purchase agreements are written in foreign currency, so a weaker shilling arrives on the metre a month later. The water line is the smallest and the one a token receipt will not explain.

A token is the whole bill for a small shop

A factory can spread a dearer unit across a month of output. A salon, a barber, a bakery and a cyber cafe buy tokens, and the token is the bill. When the unit costs more, the same note buys fewer hours of a clipper, a fridge or a screen. That is the version of this notice a reader meets.

September inflation was 6.80 per cent, and energy was already in that basket. The rate we reported from the Central Bank pack does not move because of one month's token. The token does move a household budget on its own.

The notice leaves the tariff bands alone

It does not rewrite the standing bands. It does not clear a debt to Kenya Power. It does not say the dams failed. It says thermal generation and the dollar cost more, and the formula passes that through. A reader who wants the standing price still opens the last token receipt. The KSh 4.10 is the new line above it.

Count the units. Multiply by KSh 4.10. That is the October extra on the metre, before any other charge already there.