NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 14- Five Independent directors at the Kenya Power board have resigned.
Kenya Power in a statement on Tuesday made the announcement thanking the individuals for their services in the company.
“The board of directors of the Kenya Power and Lightning Company hereby announces the resignation of Adhil Khawaja, Kairo Thuo, Wilson Kimutai Mungung’ei Brenda Kokoi and Zipporah Kering as independent directors,” reads Kenya Power notice.
“The company would like to sincerely thank the directors for their commitment and dedicated service and wishes them the best in their future endeavors,” the board said in a statement.
The announcement of the board comes after Kenya Power in June issued a profit warning saying that it has witnessed reduced electricity consumption due to coronavirus control measures and rising cost of buying wholesale power from firms like KenGen.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has adversely affected our business operation leading to a slow growth in electricity sales and an increase in financing costs resulting in reduced earnings,” said the firm.
“Based on a review of the company’s financial performance the board of directors has determined that the earnings for the financial year ended June 30, 2020 are projected to be lower than the earnings for the previous year,” said Kenya Power.
The state’s agency net profit for the six months to December declined 71.8 percent to Sh693 million, indicating that its troubles started ahead of Kenya announcing its first case of Corona on March 13.
However, its revenue rose by 1.34 percent to Sh133.1 billion pegged on electricity sales, increased power costs and higher finance costs.
The company attributed this to the new purchases from the completed Lake Turkana Wind Power project and the 50-megawatt Garissa solar farm.
The utility firm also last paid a dividend in 2017.
