Kenya Power's prepaid electricity token vending system suffered a technical outage on Thursday morning, just hours after the utility restored electricity following a widespread blackout that affected several parts of the country.
In a customer update, the power distributor confirmed that a technical hitch had disrupted its token vending platform, preventing customers from purchasing prepaid electricity tokens.
"We sincerely apologize for the distress caused. We are currently experiencing a technical hitch with our token vending system, and our team is actively working to resolve it. Please try purchasing again shortly. Thank you for your patience," Kenya Power said.
The outage left thousands of customers unable to buy electricity tokens through mobile money services, with reports of failed transactions beginning from around 6am.
A spot check by Vantage Ke established that customers attempting to purchase prepaid tokens were met with error messages indicating that the transactions could not be processed.
One customer received a notification stating: "Transaction failed; we cannot complete payment of Ksh3,000.00 to KPLC prepaid. Please try again shortly."
Others encountered a different message that read: "Your transaction failed. System internal error. Please select another payment method."
The disruption appeared to be widespread, with numerous customers reporting repeated failed payment attempts despite having enough funds in their mobile money accounts.
The outage triggered frustration among users, especially those who had already exhausted their electricity tokens and were left without a way to recharge their meters.
The technical hitch comes barely hours after Kenya Power restored electricity following a major blackout that affected Nairobi, Central Kenya, the Coast region and parts of the Central Rift Valley on Wednesday night.
Cause Of Outage
The outage, which began at around 8:30pm on July 29, was caused by a system disturbance on the national electricity grid.
Power was gradually restored over the next four hours as Kenya Power engineers carried out restoration works across the affected regions.
According to the utility, the restoration exercise started later that night, with electricity first returning to sections of Nairobi and neighbouring counties before supply was progressively reconnected to other parts of the country.
While electricity has largely been restored, Thursday's token vending outage has added to customers' frustrations, leaving many unable to purchase prepaid electricity despite having power back on the national grid.
