Kenya Power has decided to sue Cofek probably due to corruption allegations that Cofek made about a month ago. According to a statement posted by Cofek on its website, Cofek raised questions “on the multi-billion transformers acquired by KPLC”, questions of which Cofek temporarily unpublished following threats by Kenya Power that if the consumer watchdog did not apologise over the allegations that defamed the dignity of KP and hurt its feelings, then KP would go to court. Cofek declined to apologise but instead tried to do a positive Public Relations gesture by promoting the Twitter hashtag #KenyaPowerIsBestFor which terribly failed as almost all tweets under the hashtag were with negative comments:
#KenyaPowerIsBestFor
1.Frequent blackouts
2. Early maintenance shutdowns and late restoration
Bure kabisaâ liz (@lizorembo) March 24, 2016
#KenyaPowerIsBestFor torturing broke niggas with random high bills
â Daniel T. arap Moi (@PresidentMoiKE) March 24, 2016
#KenyaPowerIsBestFor monopoly and below standard service even after 50 years of independence
â Abdiqaadir (@Bluntation254) March 24, 2016
Since Cofek declined to apologise, it is highly likely that KP decided to sue Cofek on grounds of the questions raised by Cofek over the multi-billion transformer acquisitions. However, the first tweet under the hashtag #KenyaPowersuesCofek made by Cofek claimed that the lawsuit was on matters that hardly touch on the company but related to the CEO Dr. Ben Chumo.
It’s most unfortunate that #KenyaPowerSuesCofek for matters that hardly touch the company but its’ CEO Dr Ben Chumo @salano254@Elijahkyama
â COFEK, Kenya (@ConsumersKenya) April 19, 2016
A follow up tweet by Cofek then claimed that Kenya Power decided to sue Cofek on matters related to customer complains where they also pleaded with the same customers to help them against the court battle by donating money to the MPESA PayBill Number 978610.
Now that #KenyaPowerSuesCofek over complaints on its services, pleasecdonate via Paybill #978610 #THEHOTBREAKFAST pic.twitter.com/MBbXgEzzbf
â COFEK, Kenya (@ConsumersKenya) April 19, 2016
Those tweets made #KenyaPowersuesCofek to be the top trending tweet for over four hours (by the time of penning this down), with over 65% of Kenyans on Twitter supporting Cofek on the lawsuit. It is therefore not clear why Kenya Power decided to sue Cofek as no statement has been availed to us to clarify the position, either from Kenya Power or Cofek. Right now we have these possible reasons:
- KP sued Cofek because of the article where Cofek questioned the multi-billion transformer acquisitions.
- KP could have sued Cofek on behalf of the company’s CEO Dr. Ben Chumo. Some have questioned the legitimacy of Dr. Ben Chumo as the CEO of Kenya Power.
- Or the lawsuit could have been as a result of particular customer complains. Cofek has made many believe that this is the case.
On January 27, 2016 this year, the CEO of Kenya Power Dr. Ben Chumo confirmed to Kenyans during a live Citizen TV interview that the numerous blackouts that stood at 17.5 percent were being caused by substandard transformers, and to leverage on this, Kenya Power had decided to purchase 555 new genuine transformers directly from manufacturers, and in the process by-passing middle fraudulent businessmen. This acquisition made Cofek raise several questions that angered Kenya Power, making the power distributor to threaten Cofek with a lawsuit unless Cofek apologised. Cofek declined to apologise.