The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO), custodian of more than Sh300 billion worth of national power infrastructure, has been operating uninsured for over five months, exposing taxpayers to unprecedented financial risk.
KETRACO’s massive asset base includes high-value installations such as the Sh40 billion Suswa substation, the Sh25 billion Isinya hub, and the Sh10 billion Mariakani station, alongside dozens of substations and high-voltage transmission lines strung across the country on hundreds of steel pylons.
The company also maintains a 24-hour standby aircraft and other capital-intensive assets critical to grid stability.
Yet despite this gargantuan portfolio, sources confided to COFEK that KETRACO allowed its insurance cover to lapse at the end of June 2025—a dereliction of duty that could plunge the country into crisis should any incident occur.
Shakedown
Investigations reveal that Fidelity Insurance won the tender to insure KETRACO’s assets and duly signed the contract. But what followed has stunned insiders.
Multiple sources say kickback demands from senior KETRACO operatives were so exorbitant that Fidelity reportedly wired back the funds rather than participate in the extortion racket.
Remarkably, the performance bond remains intact, and the contract between KETRACO and Fidelity Insurance is still legally active—a sign of the murky power games at play.
Joint Venture
Instead of resolving the impasse, KETRACO insiders allegedly turned to Madison Insurance, reportedly persuading Fidelity to seek KETRACO’s concurrence to cede part of the risk to Madison.
This effectively amounts to a retrofit joint venture, even though the contract had been awarded exclusively to Fidelity.
The manoeuvre, insiders warn, looks less like risk-sharing and more like risk-shifting to accommodate kickback demands.
Ethnic Cartels
Deep-seated concerns also surround what insiders describe as an ethnic cartel dominating both the KETRACO board and top executive management.
The concentration of individuals from the same community is believed to be enabling the coercion, collusion, and manipulation of procurement processes—including the stalled insurance arrangement.
Even more puzzling is why an influential board director overseeing Human Resources had the multi-billion-shilling insurance portfolio shifted under the HR directorate, where a youthful General Manager—Linda Korir—is allegedly spearheading the demand for hefty kickbacks.
Liability
With uninsured power stations, transmission lines, and aircraft, KETRACO is one accident, fire, or structural failure away from a national economic catastrophe.
For a state corporation at the heart of Kenya’s energy backbone, the ongoing insurance debacle is not just mismanagement — it is wilful negligence and a direct assault on public interest.
Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi and KETRACO acting CEO Kipkemoi Kibias did not immediately respond to our inquiries, via text messages, on their phones,
It is also understood that Head of Public Service Felix Koskei has formally asked Mr Wandayi to shed light on the scary development – that is increasingly putting the Kenyans at a very high risk at the expense of the greed of a few individuals.
Meanwhile, the focus remains on board director Mercylynate Rotich and Human Resources General Manager Linda Korir.
The longer the impasse persists, the more Kenyans remain dangerously exposed.
It is also to be seen what Insurance Regulatory Authority will be sanctioning against both Fidelity and Madison insurance firms
