Tenants sweat under landlords’ inflated electricity charges

By JECKONIA OTIENO

NAIROBI, KENYA: One of the major conflicts between Peter Musyoka and his landlord revolves around the electricity bill.

Musyoka, a jua kali artisan at Kamukunji in Nairobi, complains that what he pays is not commensurate with what should be charged and the high cost has led to stagnation of his business.

“I make approximately Sh2,000 every day but I have to pay the rent which includes electricity charges. I am not even sure if I am paying the correct amount but I think the landlord is taking more than necessary on electricity charges,” says Musyoka, who pays about Sh40,000 for rent of his premises inclusive of the electricity.

Rent only takes Sh10,000 while the rest, as the landlord claims, goes into electricity charges. Musyoka says his electricity bill has not helped his business and has, for the last four years, kept it stagnant since he has to survive on the remaining Sh20,000 to look after his family of three in Huruma Estate.

Many city residents are familiar with this kind of scenario. They live under landlords, who – they say, are frauds when it comes to electricity payment.

Every month, Esther Patricia, who lives in Karen, uses about 100 units of electricity. For this she pays Sh26 per unit which translates to Sh2,600 which the landlord still takes with a frown complaining that she will still have to top up because “the price of electricity has really gone up”.

Across the country, rogue landlords are ripping off tenants with the government seemingly too helpless to do anything about it because of the “third party” nature of the relationship between landlords and their tenants as far as issues of electricity and water services are concerned.

Patricia has her own meter, which she checks daily and records the reading so that she is not conned. But this does not help because the energy charges are still way beyond what she can imagine.

“I check my meter bill every day but my landlord keeps charging me Sh26 per unit of electricity yet I have never seen the bill from Kenya Power with my own eyes and I do not know who to turn to,” says Patricia.

The Kenya Power gives its figures on the charges per unit according to the number of units used. The fixed charge is Sh120; for units used: Zero to 50 units is charged at Sh2 per unit; users who consume 51 to 1,500 units are charged Sh8.10 for every unit and those consuming above 1,500 units of electricity should pay Sh18.57 per unit. A 16 per cent VAT charge applies on all these charges.

Calculating using this standard, Patricia should ideally pay about Sh940 per month but she ends up paying about thrice the same amount and any attempts to question the landlord are met with shouts and threats that at one point in time the landlord threw back the money to her because she had given him the amount she had calculated using the Kenya Power rates.

Patricia’s predicament is not new to a number of tenants in Nairobi, and even other towns in Kenya where most landlords are perfecting the art of preying on tenants who do not know where they can channel their complains and frustrations.

Unlike in the past when rent was charged together with other services like water and electricity, most rentals now give these as separate charges which are shouldered by tenants. While some landlords are transparent enough to allow their tenants have their bills sent directly to them so that they pay, others have used this leeway to con their tenants.

One of the unconventional ways through which tenants end up paying more than necessary is when the electricity bill is shared among tenants of a particular flat or floor regardless of what one uses the electricity for.

George Omondi from Huruma says that every month he has to cough an average of Sh700 yet he is out most of the day every working day of the week. The bill is shared among the five tenants of the floor on which he lives.

Omondi laments, “I have three married neighbours to share the bill with and their wives stay back at home consuming electricity the whole day yet we have to share the bill equally which is not fair.”

Some landlords have sorted out such complaints by installing individual electric meters for each tenant to ensure that some tenants do not exploit others. Some have introduced the prepaid system so that renters can use what they have paid for.

A landlord in Mathare North, Peter Kamwaria, says many landlords are taking up the prepaid meters, which are hassle free because tenants pay for what they have used. The landlord argues that there are only a few rogue landlords who take advantage of renters who do not understand their rights.

Other landlords, in spite of tenants paying their bills on shared meters, still end up switching off electricity every day of the week so that consumers are limited thus cut down on the number of units used. But whether this solves the problem of unequal usage is another question altogether.

The Kenya Power and Lighting company (KPLC), however, argues that this is a third party scenario, like taking a loan from a bank and loaning it to others. There is no way the bank from where you have taken the loan can come in and decide that it can control the interest rates you charge those that have been loaned.

Migwi Theuri, KPLC’s communications manager says that when power is supplied to the landlord, the contract stands between the landlord and KPLC. Thus, the electricity distribution company has no business in knowing what the landlord charges the tenants.

“As far as we are concerned,” says Theuri, “if we give you a bill as a landlord, your work is to pay what you owe us. So there is no way KPLC comes in on what the landlord charges.”

Theuri also says it is not Kenya Power’s mandate to come between what the landlord charges the tenant. Any exploitation that arises from the deal between the landlord and tenant can only be solved using other means initiated by the tenant.

But there is a way out as Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek)’s secretary general Stephen Mutoro says: “The law protects consumers from exploitation and tenants are consumers — unfortunately they do not know their rights.”

Mutoro says despite the situation being complicated, because many tenants fear complaining due to the backlash they may face from the landlords and also the fact that tenancy is on willing-buyer-willing-seller basis, the Constitution is still clear on consumer protection.

Article 46 of the Constitution states that consumers have the right to information necessary for them to gain full benefit from goods and services; and to the protection of their health, safety, and economic interests.

It further states, “This Article applies to goods and services offered by public entities or private persons.”

There is, therefore, no justification whatsoever, as Mutoro puts it, for making profit on services that essentially are supplied by the government.

He argues that if there is evidence that the charges are inflated over and above the required rates, then criminal proceedings can be instituted.

“The tenant should make a formal complaint if there is a way of proving that there is theft of this nature,” says Mutoro, stating that this is purely criminal because such a landlord can only increase the cost if there are production costs being incurred; but this cannot be possible with electricity because the government does the production.

“Much as KPLC cannot complain, tenants have a right also to complain to Cofek because this is considered as robbery without violence,” says Mutoro. 

Some quarters, however, argue that the landlord has no business collecting money for KPLC, it should be done solely by the power company.

Lucas Kangoli, an advocate of the High Court, says the best procedure for the tenant is to go to KPLC to establish the charges they have accrued and that is what they should pay.

“There are cases that tenants end up paying unequally for electricity that has been used by others which is why it is necessary that energy users have their own meters which they can keep tabs on,” says Kangoli.

The advocate admonishes landlords for blatantly charging arbitrary rates, saying tenants can go to court and stop this kind of theft. It is, however, easier to work as a team, if tenants want to put an end to the problem of overcharging. When they make their complaint as group then it carries more weight.

In the case where the landlord is adding more money above the meter charges, the tenant has an option of refusing to pay, paying according to the meter reading and nothing more or seeking legal recourse if the landlord refuses to budge, says Kangoli.

But when Patricia tried to pay the amount according to the meter charges and the landlord ended up throwing the money back to her and intimidating other tenants accusing them of inciting the tenant who has always paid without any problem she felt helpless.

“The landlord says that this is her plot and she has the right to do whatever she feels like without interference and nobody has any right to tell her how to manage her property,” says Patricia, who is on the verge of giving up pushing for her rights.

Probably what the landlord does not know, according to legal experts, is that there are laws that protect consumers that have to be adhered to at all times. The bottom line is that electricity charges are government services which no-one should profit from. 

But for now, all Patricia and other affected tenants are waiting for is to see is if the government will help stop this wanton theft.