"There is a problem with my bill, it's far too high!!" Mary said to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company cashier across the counter.

"It is? You tell me, you are the one using the power, not me," the cashier responded.

Mary had no choice than to pay the shs 2,000 bill. Failure to pay would have meant disconnection, perhaps several days groping in the dark, the hiss of a meko in the background and crucially no radio and having to go to Akidiva's to charge her mobile phone. Then there was the endless saga of reconnection woes, which are in themselves a story for another day.

It was shocking for Mary, a single mother of three to receive that bill, sh 2,000 was what she expected they got in those big houses over the other side of the road. She remembered well -she had them all still, her monthly electricity bills for the last two years had been in the Ksh 150 to Ksh 200 range.

Mary was seeking an explanation for the drastic change in her bill. She wondered how she would have consumed all that power with the light bulb and the transistor radio. She had not bought any new electric equipment, nor changed her patterns of use. With all the blackouts and the costs of the alternative energy sources, this was stretching her meagre budget very thin. But she had no choice, it was like they had a gun to her head, the bill had to be paid.

Her story will no doubt ring familiar to many Kenyan residents whose bills experience these periodic and inexplicable inflations. KPLC argues that some meters are interfered with and that once the interference is detected, future payments can be reduced to cover for the overpayment.

KPLC charges that there are many people tampering with its meters, concumers who get a jua kali electrician to ensure that their consumption reflects much lower figures than it should. For instance, landlords of blocks of flats often take it upon themselves to pay the electric bill. Having taken a reasonable sum of their tenants, their workings of the meters ensure that the readings even for a sixteen home block of flats will be a minimal figure, corresponding more with what would be expected of a single flat.

The barrage of complaints thrown the way of Reddy Kilowatt have resulted in the firm coming up with an alternative to give more control over their bills. He recently contemplated selling power using a was a "pay as you use" system, much like scratch cards. It has not yet been implemented even though it seems to present few problems in nighbouring Tanzania. They have made good progress there with LUKU- Lipa Umeme Kadri Utumiavyo- which they argue minimizes theft and leakages. Still, I know many Tanzanians who have fiddled with their meters so they give more consumer friendly readings.

While that is put on the back-burner, the power distribution monopoly is seeking to spread its income net wider, Umeme Pamoja program, that will connect more homes to the grid. One wishes that KPLC would just get on with fixing its current problems, the intermittent power supply, the talk of rationing and a crackdown on the vandals who force the rest of us to pay heavily for our electricity.

Privatisation we were promised, would assure us better service and even help bring costs down. It has shown few signs of doing that. KPLC, let us share in the light.