Kenya Power appoints Vivienne Yeda first woman to chair board

Incoming Kenya Power Board Chair Vivienne Yeda (PHOTO: Kenya Power Twitter handle)

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenya Power has appointed Vivienne Yeda as the new Chairman, Board of Directors replacing Mahboub Maalim.

In a tweet, Kenya Power said Yeda will be the first woman to serve as chairman of the board. “We are excited and look forward to her stewardship, and that of the entire Board, as we pursue our growth journey,” Kenya Power tweeted on Friday.

Ms Yeda is the director of East African Developmen Bank and an expert in foreign relations law, international economic law, business operations, and financial transactions in public and private sector operations including project finance and structured finance.

The outgoing Chairman Mahboub Maalim exuded confidence in the current team assuring the public of its commitment to steer the company towards growth and stability.

“As I exit, I want to thank fellow board members, management, employees, customers, business, and all other stakeholders for their support,” he said.

Vivienne Yeda was part of the non-executive directors appointed this year to help turn around the fortunes of Kenya’s sole power distributor.

Unaudited financial results for the period to June 2020 issued by Treasury last week indicate Kenya Power sank into a loss of Sh2.98 billion.

On Friday at the Annual General Meeting, the firm’s Managing Director Bernard Ngugi said the company has recently rolled out a county-focused business model to turn the regions into profit centres, which is expected to help improve the firm’s fortunes.

“Our target this year is to grow sales by three per cent driven by new customer connections, enhancement of revenue protection measures and supporting demand growth for customers,” he said.

He added that the firm had since July this year connected 140,000 new customers against a target of 125,000 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, which has slowed down activities by many firms.

Kenya power is also seeking a tariff hike in a bid to increase revenues, which the CEO said they would continue pushing for. The new structure, if the firm has its way, might see low-income households pay more for power.

Energy Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge said the Government had also given the firm a moratorium on concessional loans it had procured on behalf of Kenya Power, as among the initiatives the State has employed to help the company find a firm footing.

The Energy ministry, he said, is also helping the company in debt collection from other State agencies and counties.