A concerned stakeholder has unearthed massive corruption at the Kikuyu Water Company – an agency appointed by the Athi Water Board where a greedy crooks have ganged up to rob innocent Kenyans through exaggerated bills and theft of metres.
“Hi, Nyakundi,
So, I am a customer of Kikuyu Water Company an agent of Athi Water Board (you can verify online through the website).
If there is a company that is wrought with corruption, it is this one.
Over the years, we have had battles on exaggerated bills with regard to property within Kikuyu and the environs.
I will not disclose the exact location.
The entire office, staff, and stakeholders, name it, is a den of thieves.
First, we tackled the fake bills over a period of almost two years.
Just when we thought the matter was behind us, one of the water meters was stolen.
But, we still continued to get billing on the related account of that meter.
This went on for years before we confronted the whole situation.
How was it possible that a meter is stolen, but you still continue to get billing?
We later found out that, the meter was installed somewhere else.
That is why we continued to be billed.
So, we closed that account after some years and refused to settle a bill that could not be explained.
This year I continue to get SMS alerts over the CLOSED account for an outstanding bill of almost Sh3,000.
How is it even possible to have a bill or arrears on an account that we mutually agreed was fraudulent and closed?
The worst part is, the alerts which are sent via SMS come from different cell phones and always give another number to ‘call’ for enquiry.
It doesn’t matter how many times I blacklist the message and the number, another one is sent.
Within one week, I can receive at least 2 – 3 such messages a day.
The last I responded to one of these messages, why they are alerting me of an account that was closed a long time ago?
They went silent for a week or two then resumed sending the alerts.
This time leaving the account out but mentioning the amount in question.
That amount never changes.
It has remained the same for months.
Then, wait for it, this morning, they resumed sending the alerts, including the number of the closed account.
I have blacklisted the number but expect such messages to keep coming.
And if this is not enough, the active account also refers.
In October, a tenant paid off a bill immediately whereas one would expect the account to settle to nil or negligible arrears, it’s tripled!
We were shocked.
Imagine saying you have a bill to pay of Sh4,000, you pay it thinking that the balance will read zero (0) only for the message back to you to read you owe Sh12,000.
How is that even plausible?
And, the whole office and its stakeholders work like cartels.
Not the grounds people, not the accounts, not the “MD’ nor anyone can salvage you once you are a target.
They are also involved in meter theft.
How else can one explain how a stolen meter continues to bill to the victim’s account even when the victim has reported the matter to them?
And, it takes years to resolve anything.
By that time, tenants move out or the owner of the property gives in and pays. That’s their desire.
I am not sure how Kenya will be salvaged especially in the public sector.
Needless to say, Kikuyu water had activated a USSD code where one could sign in and ask for anything from billing to statements. It has never worked.
I imagine it is compromised to keep the looting going.
Just post this anonymously, maybe someone somewhere will offer a solution,” the source writes.
