Kenya Power Hired 1,154 People in a Year, Including 435 Engineers

Kenya Power hired 1,154 new staff, including 435 engineers, in the year ended June 2026, the largest number the electricity distributor has recruited in a single year. That is more than double the 490 people it took on the year before, and it comes at a time when many listed Kenyan firms are cutting staff rather than adding them. The key point for anyone hoping to join is simple. The 1,154 figure counts people already recruited during the financial year, not vacancies open today. At Metaintro we read hiring headlines like this one against the employer's own adverts and annual report, because that is where the qualifications, the application steps and the next intake are actually written down. Below is why the utility is hiring, what its engineering adverts ask for, how the portal works and how to avoid the fake notices that follow every big hiring story.

How Many People Did Kenya Power Actually Hire?

The headline figure is 1,154 new staff in the year ended June 2026, and 435 of them were engineers. It is the single highest number of new staff the company has recruited in a year.

The run of hiring is easier to read year by year. The utility had frozen hiring for six years and resumed in the year that ended June 2023 with 363 new employees. The next year it hired again to fill resource gaps in key customer-facing functions. In the year to June 2025 the company onboarded 490 additional employees, bringing its staffing strength to 10,582. Then came the jump to more than double that in the year ended June 2026.

The engineering share is what stands out. Engineers made up 435 of the 1,154 hires, a heavy tilt toward technical skills in a company where over 85 percent of staff already work in technical business operations and customer-facing functions across a grid of 328,000 kilometres.

Why Is Kenya Power Hiring After Years of a Freeze?

Because people have been leaving faster than they were replaced. Some 2,234 employees have retired since 2020, and the company expected another 488 to leave by June 2026, bringing retirements to 2,722 over six years.

Engineers were a painful loss. Managing director Joseph Siror put it bluntly, saying there has been serious attrition of engineers (mainly retirement and going abroad for studies), and that the latest intake "does not cover the numbers we have lost over the last five years."

The gap has a number attached. The utility put its staffing deficit at 2,981 employees two years ago and is now running a phased three-year recruitment plan that prioritises critical technical skills and succession planning. The plan to add nearly 3,000 more employees over three years reversed earlier plans to cut the workforce.

The customer base keeps growing too. The company crossed the 10 million customer mark with 401,848 new connections in its 2024/25 financial year, and each new connection adds lines, meters and transformers that someone has to install and maintain. The hiring also stands against a wider recruitment freeze on new positions that the National Treasury imposed at state corporations, which makes a utility adding staff at this pace unusual.

The 1,154 hires are people already on the payroll, so the only jobs you can apply for are the ones posted after them.

Are Any of These Jobs Still Open?

Not these ones. The recruitment has already happened, and anyone planning around the headline should apply only to vacancies published through official recruitment channels rather than social media posts claiming the same roles are open.

The place to look is Kenya Power's own careers page, which lists current and recent openings, internships and development programmes. The most recent engineering listing there is headed ICT & Network Management 2026, and it links to an advert for an Experienced Engineer, reference KP1/5B.2/1/3/2049. Applications for that round closed on Friday 10th July 2026, so it has passed, but it is the clearest guide to what the next engineering advert will look like.

The phased plan matters here. A three-year programme whose latest intake still does not cover the engineers lost means more rounds are likely, and adverts appear on the same page with a reference number and a closing date. Checking the page every week or two is the only reliable way to catch a window.

What Does a Kenya Power Engineering Job Actually Involve?

The latest advert spells out separate engineering functions one by one, and it reads like a map of where the utility needs people most. Successful candidates report to senior engineers in the technical functions, across the following areas:

• SCADA and telecommunication. Maintaining the control and data system that lets engineers monitor the grid remotely.
• Power system protection. Configuring and testing protection relays, running coordination studies, and designing substation automation on IEC 61850 systems.
• Electrical plant. Running maintenance schedules and responding to power system failures in plant equipment.
• Transmission network. Coordinating teams that fix breakdowns and planning network upgrades.
• National Control Centre. Managing load during emergencies and restoring the distribution grid after disturbances.
• Power purchase and planning. Preparing annual and long-term power and energy balances.

Newer skills are showing up as well. An earlier advert for a third assistant engineer in e-mobility covered EV charging infrastructure, troubleshooting electric motorcycles and batteries, and writing product specifications for chargers. The company is also setting up advanced laboratories at its Institute of Energy Studies and Research for training in renewable energy, mini-grid systems, power electronics and energy analytics with artificial intelligence.

What Qualifications Do Kenya Power Engineers Need?

The bar is published and it is high. The latest Experienced Engineer advert asks for a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from a recognised institution, at least seven years of relevant work experience, and registration as a Graduate Engineer with the Engineers Board of Kenya.

The e-mobility role showed that other degrees can qualify for specialist posts. It asked for a degree in mechatronics, electrical or automotive engineering, at least five years of relevant experience and registration with the same engineering board.

That leaves a clear gap for new graduates. Seven years of experience is not an entry-level ask, so a recent electrical engineering graduate is better served by internships, contractor work or a smaller utility first, then applying once the experience and board registration are in hand. If you are weighing the path, our guide to electrical engineer salary and how to earn more sets out how pay grows with experience and licensing.

How Do You Apply Through the Kenya Power Careers Portal?

Everything runs through one online system. The careers page asks new applicants to register on the careers portal, then log in to apply for the latest opportunities, and it links a step-by-step candidate guide.

The company's own candidate application guide walks through the steps:

• Register your details on the portal.
• Open the verification email, which arrives as a PDF, and click the highlighted link.
• Go to your personal career page, release your profile and update your details.
• Apply for jobs under the Employment Opportunities tab.

If a screen will not load, the guide tells you to check that browser pop-ups are enabled.

Each advert adds its own instructions. You attach a detailed CV and copies of academic and professional certificates, quote the title of the position, and include your mobile number and email address. The company may use what you submit for background verification.

Prepare the clearance documents early. Candidates offered a job must present a Certificate of Good Conduct from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, a clearance from the Higher Education Loans Board, a tax compliance certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority, clearance from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and a report from an approved credit reference bureau. Some of these take weeks, so start before an offer arrives.

Two rules sit at the bottom of each advert we checked. Canvassing leads to automatic disqualification, and the company does not charge any fee at any stage of recruitment, from application to offer. The careers page also invites female applicants and those from minority groups to apply.

How Can You Tell a Real Kenya Power Job Ad From a Fake One?

Check where it lives. In July the company flagged a fake notice claiming it was hiring for over 220 positions, from maintenance technicians to data entry clerks and cleaners, which directed applicants to an email address outside the company's official channels.

The warning itself was plain, telling job seekers to beware of conmen posing as recruiters and making clear that vacancies appear only on the official careers page. It also warned against paying anyone who promises a job.

A big headline number makes this worse, because fraudsters reuse it. Use three quick tests before you send anything:

• Is it on the careers page? If the vacancy is not listed at the official site, treat it as fake.
• Does it ask for money? Genuine adverts state that the company charges no fee at any stage.
• Does it ask you to email a CV? Real adverts send you to the online portal, not to a personal email inbox.

Our guide on how AI job scams work and how to spot them covers the wider tricks, from fake interview fees to cloned company pages.

A genuine advert sends you to the portal and states it charges no fee at any stage, so anything that asks for money or an emailed CV is the first thing to delete.

What Routes Exist for Students and Technicians Without Seven Years of Experience?

The attachment programme is the widest door. The people section of its 2024/25 annual report says the company engaged 585 interns and placed 2,459 students on industrial attachment.

The attachment adverts show who qualifies. The May to July 2025 intake took continuing students on degree and diploma programmes, both technical and non-technical, plus craft certificate students in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Power Option), Mechanical or Automotive Engineering, Building and Civil Engineering, and Plumbing. Placements run for up to three months, you must be available full time, and you need an introduction letter from your college. The careers page also lists a September to November 2025 intake, so rounds come more than once a year.

Contractors are a second route into grid work. The company engaged 376 contractors employing about 6,200 people, mainly from host communities. For line technicians and electricians, working for one of those firms builds the field experience that later adverts ask for.

Casual labour was a third door, but the law now steers public bodies away from it. A Public Service Commission survey of 2023 counted 53,436 casual workers at Kenya Power, a workforce the utility leaned on heavily for repair and rehabilitation projects. The law prohibits public institutions from employing casual workers, and a ruling from the Employment and Labour Relations Court points them to contracted service providers instead. For technicians, that means the contractor route is likely to matter more than casual gate hiring.

What Does Working at Kenya Power Offer Beyond Salary?

The adverts do not print salary scales, but the annual report describes the package. The company rolled out a fully funded car and mortgage loan facility at 3 percent, reviewed shift compensation for staff working outside standard hours, and promoted 1,640 employees across job grades in its 2024/25 year.

Training is substantial. The utility ran 254 training programmes reaching 4,126 staff in areas such as smart metering, overhead line construction and fibre-optic work. Its employee satisfaction index rose to 83 percent from 67 percent over the same year.

The workforce profile is worth knowing too. At 30 June 2025 staff were 79 percent male and 21 percent female with an average age of 43, and the company is working to raise female representation to at least 30 percent. For women in engineering, that target is a real opening, and it matches the careers page invitation to female applicants.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

Our view is that this is a genuine hiring story, but a delayed one for anyone reading about it now. Those roles are already filled. What remains open is the rest of a three-year plan, and it will reach job seekers only through the careers portal, one reference number at a time.

The engineering intake also shows who the company values most. Protection, SCADA and control room work are hard to fill because they need experience, and the retirements that drove this hiring are still coming. An engineer with seven years in a utility, a contractor or an industrial plant, plus Graduate Engineer registration, is in a strong position for the next round.

Here is how we would act on it:

• Experienced electrical engineers. Register on the portal now, keep your certificates scanned and ready, and start your clearance certificates early so an offer is not delayed.
• Recent graduates. Do not chase the seven-year adverts. Build experience with a contractor or through internships, and get your board registration in hand.
• TVET and college students. Watch for the next attachment intake and have your introduction letter ready before it opens.
• Everyone. Ignore any Kenya Power job post that is not on the official page, asks for a fee or wants an emailed CV.

The one mistake to avoid is treating the headline as an invitation. The number describes hiring that is already complete. The next opening will be a dated advert on the careers page, and the people ready for it will be the ones who registered early.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many people did Kenya Power hire in the year ended June 2026?

A: Kenya Power hired 1,154 new staff including 435 engineers in the year ended June 2026, more than double the 490 it hired the year before and the highest number it has recruited in a single year.

Q: Is Kenya Power recruiting now?

A: The 1,154 hires are already complete, so check the official careers page for live adverts. The most recent engineering round closed on 10th July 2026, and more rounds are expected under the company's phased hiring plan.

Q: What qualifications does Kenya Power ask engineers for?

A: The latest Experienced Engineer advert asks for a degree in electrical and electronics engineering and seven years of experience, plus registration as a Graduate Engineer with the Engineers Board of Kenya. Students can instead apply for three month industrial attachments.

Ready to explore where your engineering or technical skills fit next? Metaintro brings together 50M jobs so you can compare utility, energy and engineering roles in Kenya and beyond in one place. Create a free profile and set alerts for engineer, technician and graduate roles so the next round reaches you first.