Parliament has summoned Kenya Power #ticker:KPLC managing director Ken Tarus after he skipped two invitations to appear before it to respond to issues touching on escalating electricity bills and prepaid tokens.

Committee on Energy said Dr Tarus was also required to answer several questions regarding the procurement at Kenya Power following an internal audit report in which 19 companies were cited for malpractice.

The audit also alleged that the firm’s tender committee members were colluding with staff to award tenders, denying Kenyans opportunities.

“We had scheduled a meeting with Dr Tarus but it is unfortunate that he sent a Mr Peter Mungai, the Kenya Power general manager, business strategy who has informed us that the chief executive is in the US attending a UN meeting.

“We cannot listen to junior officers and therefore we instruct that Dr Tarus appears in person on Tuesday,” David Gikaria, Energy committee chairman said.

“We understand that over 350 companies that are not qualified to be KPLC contractors found their way into the list of prequalified contractors.

“We also hear that some KPLC employees are in the same racket of the award of contracts. Other companies that did not meet the criteria found their way into the list,” he said.

Mr Gikaria said the managing director was also expected to shed light on the Kenya Power token recharge. “We have information that KPLC tokens have been choked to allow other private players to sale them. We wanted to find out the truth on these allegations,” he said.

Two weeks ago, the parliamentary Public Investments Committee (PIC) directed Dr Tarus to provide details of the contracts that were awarded to 15 vendors, the charges they are levying customers who buy tokens, the turnover of business made by each of the vendors and the directorship of the firms.

“We want to know why Kenyans are losing money when they pay for electricity units through the vendors. We want to know why your service is difficult to get through,” said Abdulswamad Nassir who chairs the PIC.