Thousands Unable to Buy Kenya Power Tokens Hours After Nationwide Blackout

Thousands Unable to Buy Kenya Power Tokens Hours After Nationwide Blackout

NAIROBI, Kenya – Thousands of Kenya Power customers across the country were left stranded on Thursday morning after a widespread disruption affected the purchase of prepaid electricity tokens through mobile money platforms, only hours after the country recovered from a nationwide power blackout.

The technical hitch, which began to surface from around 6:00 a.m., prevented customers from topping up prepaid electricity accounts, leaving many homes and businesses without power despite electricity supply having been restored to most parts of the country overnight.

The disruption quickly triggered widespread complaints on social media, with frustrated users reporting repeated transaction failures whenever they attempted to purchase Kenya Power tokens using mobile money services.

A spot check established that customers attempting to complete token purchases consistently received automated error notifications indicating that the transactions could not be processed.

One of the messages displayed to customers read:

“Transaction failed; we cannot complete payment of Ksh3,000.00 to KPLC prepaid. Please try again shortly.”

The repeated failures sparked frustration among prepaid electricity customers, particularly those whose existing electricity units had been exhausted overnight and were unable to recharge their meters before beginning their daily routines.

For many households, the inability to purchase electricity tokens meant continued darkness despite the restoration of the national electricity grid, while small businesses that depend on a steady power supply were forced to delay operations.

The interruption comes barely hours after Kenya experienced a major nationwide blackout on the evening of Wednesday, July 29, following what Kenya Power later described as a technical disturbance on the national electricity grid.

The outage, which began shortly after 8:30 p.m., affected Nairobi, the Coast region, Central Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley, disrupting businesses, transport systems and household activities before engineers restored supply in phases during the night.

In an update issued after the blackout, Kenya Power confirmed that electricity had been restored to all affected customers by 2:00 a.m.

“We are pleased to report that power supply was fully restored to all affected customers by 2:00am today,” the utility company said.

According to Kenya Power, engineers gradually re-energized key substations before reconnecting electricity supply across different regions of the country.

However, Thursday morning’s payment disruption has now shifted public attention from electricity restoration to concerns over the reliability of the company’s prepaid token purchasing systems.

As complaints mounted online, customers questioned whether the payment failures were linked to the previous night’s nationwide blackout or whether they resulted from a separate technical problem affecting Kenya Power’s prepaid vending platform.

By mid-morning, Kenya Power had not immediately issued a formal explanation regarding the token purchase failures, leaving affected customers uncertain about when the system would resume normal operations.

The absence of immediate communication from the utility further fueled frustration, with many consumers calling for regular updates whenever technical interruptions affect essential services.

The prepaid electricity system remains the primary mode of electricity access for millions of Kenyan households, allowing customers to purchase electricity units in advance through mobile money platforms, banking channels and authorized vendors.

Any disruption to the platform therefore has an immediate impact on households and businesses, particularly those that rely exclusively on prepaid electricity and have no alternative source of power.

Industry observers note that the incident highlights the growing dependence on digital payment systems for essential public services. While Kenya has made significant progress in integrating mobile money into utility payments, outages affecting these platforms can quickly disrupt everyday life for millions of consumers.

The latest disruption also underscores the importance of strengthening both electricity infrastructure and the supporting digital payment systems that enable customers to access essential services.

As customers continued to report unsuccessful token purchases throughout Thursday morning, many now await an official explanation from Kenya Power on the cause of the payment failure, whether it was connected to the national grid disturbance, and the measures being taken to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

ALSO READ: Kenya Power Blames National Grid Technical Fault for Nationwide Blackout, Restores Electricity by 2 a.m.

Thousands Unable to Buy Kenya Power Tokens Hours After Nationwide Blackout