Kenya Power has announced that a total of 5.64 million prepaid token electricity customers have updated their meters ahead of the deadline on 31st August.
The meter update exercise targeted 7.4 million prepaid meters, whose software must be updated to enable customers to continue enjoying access to electricity. Kenya Power has significantly missed its target.
The Update Token Meter Yako campaign was launched in mid-June 2024, calling on all Kenya Power prepaid token customers to update their meter software, free of charge. The company has issued a reminder to all prepaid customers who have not yet updated their meters to ensure that they comply by the set deadline to avoid service interruption.
Customers have complained that some of the update codes that have been sent by Kenya Power have not worked leading them to struggle to update their prepaid meters. Kenya Power should extend the deadline and ensure that all meters are update to avoid service interruption to customers who are almost 2 million.
To access the meter update codes, customers are required to purchase at least one unit of electricity and thereafter key in the codes into the meter by following the steps provided in the token SMS. Before updating their meters, customers must ensure that all previously bought tokens have been loaded into the meter.
Prepaid meters that will not have been updated by the set deadline will not accept electricity tokens. The token meter update is an ongoing global exercise targeting all prepaid meters that use the Standard Transfer Specification (STS). To ensure that the exercise is carried out successfully, Kenya Power adopted a phased approach where prepaid (token) meters are scheduled for update in batches.
Apart from the SMS notification, customers can also access their prepaid meter update codes through Kenya Power’s USSD code *977#. This also serves as a backup in case the SMS notification is lost.