Many Kenyans left in the dark after Kenya Power experiences prepaid tokens glitch

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Kenyans were left stranded as their purchase of Kenya Power electricity tokens failed to go through for the better part of Sunday.

Many took their frustrations to social media lamenting that they had bought tokens through the M-Pesa mobile money and all they got was a message showing I failed to go through.

Many lamented late into the night that they had run out of tokens and were in the dark as the message they got back read, “Transaction failed, M-Pesa cannot complete payment of Kshxxxx to KPLC PREPAID. Organization receiving the payment is unavailable, try again later.”

Kenya Power technicians at work. PHOTO/COURTESY

More than 8 hours later at around 7pm is when Kenya Power released a statement explaining it was experiencing a hitch with its prepaid token vending system in countrywide.

“We are experiencing a technical hitch that is affecting prepaid vending and preventing acces to our contact center via 97771. Out technical team is working to restore normalcy as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” said Kenya Power.

However, infuriated Kenyans who were forced to operate in the dark and risk having their foods go bad in their fridges and seek alternative lighting did not take the matter lightly.

Kenya Power later on Monday blamed the major glitch on a high number of people purchasing electricity tokens at the same time, which sounded unconvincing given at any particular time a high number of consumers will be purchasing tokens anyway.

An update issued on Monday at 4pm indicated that normal services had resumed and that the firm was working overtime to send all tokens bought during the glitch and had not been sent.