Over the years, Hivisasa has been covering cases of illegal power connections in Kisii. In some cases, the unlawful connections resulted in the death of residents.
The recent case to be covered by Hivisasa was in early September where a 23-year-old man was electrocuted in Chirichiro, Khumbu while making an illegal connection from his mother's home to his house.
The latest death accounted to the seven lives lost in August alone. Hivisasa Kisii based writer Geoff Gichana covered the story. The writer received the news from the area chief.
Gichana visited the area, where he interviewed the victims and residents who claimed that the Kenya Power company was doing nothing about illegal connections. Locals further claimed that corruption was to be blamed for the situation.
It emerged that illegal connections were fueled by poverty. Furthermore, residents were encouraged to carry out illicit connections because of Kenya Power's failure to respond to existing cases.
Kenya Power regional Manager Kisii Mr. John Guda dismissed the allegations upon being interviewed by the writer.
The story was then published and shared with various stakeholders in the energy sector resulting in a lot of pressure.
Based on the pressure, the Kenya Power National office was forced to respond to the allegations of entertaining corruption that was fueling illegal connections in Kisii.
The company's Security Services Manager Major Geoffrey Kigen admitted that the Kenya Power was overwhelmed with the issue of illegal connections in the country as they were rampant.
Kigen admitted the power distributor does not keep records of victims. Kenya Power urged residents to report illegal connection cases warning that the law will take full course for the guilty individuals.
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