Thousands of Kenyans were unable to purchase Kenya Power prepaid electricity tokens on Thursday morning after repeated failures in mobile money transactions.
The issue, first reported by several Kenyans at around 6am, left many unable to top up their electricity accounts, sparking widespread frustration.
A spot check conducted by Kenyans.co.ke found that customers attempting to buy prepaid tokens through mobile money received error messages indicating the transactions could not be completed.
One of the messages sent to a customer read: “Transaction failed; we cannot complete payment of Ksh3,000.00 to KPLC prepaid. Please try again shortly.”
Kenya Power Tokens metre.
Kenyans.co.ke
Others attempting to make payments through the mobile money application received a notification stating, “Your transaction failed. System internal error. Please select another payment method.”
The disruption appeared to affect many Kenyans, with some users reporting repeated failed transactions despite having sufficient funds in their mobile money accounts.
The outage sparked frustration among customers, particularly those who had exhausted their electricity tokens and were unable to purchase new ones.
Despite repeated complaints from Kenyans, Kenya Power did not immediately address the issue, leaving many households and businesses stranded in darkness.
The latest incident comes just hours after a power outage was reported in several parts of the country, particularly in Central Kenya, Nairobi, the Coast region and parts of the Central Rift Valley.
The outage occurred on the night of Wednesday, July 29, after a sudden system disturbance on the national electricity grid, with the blackout reported from around 8:30pm.
Power was restored to most affected areas about four hours later after Kenya Power engineers began restoration works.
According to the utility firm, the grid restoration exercise commenced later that night, progressively reconnecting electricity supply to sections of Nairobi and neighbouring counties before extending to other affected regions.
Thursday’s payment disruption has now compounded the frustrations of Kenyans, with many unable to purchase prepaid electricity tokens despite power supply having largely been restored.
Maasai Lodge area of Ongata Rongai in darkness during the nationwide blackout on Wednesday, July 29.
Photo
Kenyans.co.ke
