(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Kenya Power’s chief executive officer Joseph Siror’s annual pay nearly doubled to KES 46.02 million ($355,400 / GBP 263,200) in the year ended June 2026, as the company rewarded its top executive for a third straight year of profits and higher dividends.
Mr Siror’s payslip was boosted by a higher base salary and expense allowances, and a gratuity that was absent previously. He was paid a total of KES 24.14 million ($186,400 / GBP 138,100) in the year ended June 2025, and KES 23.26 million ($179,700 / GBP 133,100) in 2024.
Latest filings in Kenya Power’s annual report for 2026 show that Mr Siror’s base salary rose from KES 17.37 million ($134,200 / GBP 99,400) to KES 23.07 million ($178,200 / GBP 132,000) in the latest financial period, while his expense allowances increased to KES 10.52 million ($81,300 / GBP 60,200) from KES 6.77 million ($52,300 / GBP 38,700) a year earlier.
He was also handed a gratuity of KES 12.44 million ($96,100 / GBP 71,200) this year, marking the first time he has received this type of payment since taking over as CEO in May 2023.
Mr Siror’s higher pay reflects the company’s continued profitability under his tenure, which has been accompanied by progressively higher dividends for shareholders.
Kenya Power reported a 2.1% growth in net profit to KES 24.99 billion ($193 million / GBP 143 million) in the year ended June 2026, helped by an 8.6% increase in revenue from electricity sales to KES 238.24 billion ($1.84 billion / GBP 1.36 billion).
However, a 5.5% increase in cost of sales to KES 152.7 billion ($1.18 billion / GBP 873 million) and a 26.7% jump in operating expenses to KES 53.8 billion ($415.6 million / GBP 307.7 million) capped the growth in profit.
The company raised its dividend per share for the year by 50%, to KES 1.50 ($0.012 / GBP 0.009) per unit from KES 1 ($0.008 / GBP 0.006) in 2025, translating to an increase in total distribution from KES 1.95 billion ($15.1 million / GBP 11.2 million) to KES 2.93 billion ($22.6 million / GBP 16.8 million).
In the year to June 2024, Kenya Power paid a dividend of KES 0.70 ($0.005 / GBP 0.004) per share, or KES 1.37 billion ($10.6 million / GBP 7.8 million), having turned around to a net profit of KES 30.08 billion ($232.4 million / GBP 172.1 million) from a net loss of KES 3.19 billion ($24.6 million / GBP 18.2 million) in 2023. The 2024 dividend ended a seven year payout drought at the utility.
Overall, Kenya Power’s compensation to its board rose to KES 112.77 million ($871,200 / GBP 645,100) from KES 58.87 million ($454,800 / GBP 336,800) a year earlier. The increase was primarily driven by higher expense allowances of KES 51.9 million ($400,900 / GBP 296,900) from KES 31.4 million ($242,600 / GBP 179,700) previously across the board, in addition to Mr Siror’s improved remuneration.
Companies usually reward executives with higher pay or bonuses for hitting a number of milestones which can include profit growth, returns to shareholders or operational efficiencies.
However, while boards of listed firms set the executive pay, companies such as Kenya Power and KenGen where the government has a majority stake have another layer of approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) which controls public sector pay.
This means the likes of KenGen and Kenya Power tend to pay their executives less than their private sector peers that have similar levels of assets and profitability, for example listed banks.
The best paying lenders such as Co-operative Bank of Kenya and KCB Group, and other blue chips such as Safaricom and EABL pay their top executives more than KES 12.95 billion ($100 million / GBP 74 million) annually.
In the year ended December 2025, Co-op Bank chief executive officer Gideon Muriuki was paid KES 489.5 million ($3.78 million / GBP 2.80 million), comprising a salary of KES 185.76 million ($1.43 million / GBP 1.06 million) and a bonus of KES 303.7 million ($2.35 million / GBP 1.74 million), while KCB chief executive officer Paul Russo was paid a total of KES 285.3 million ($2.20 million / GBP 1.63 million) in salary, allowances and bonus. Safaricom paid its CEO Peter Ndegwa a total of KES 324.5 million ($2.51 million / GBP 1.86 million) in salary, bonus and other benefits in the 12 months to March 2026.
Exchange rate: 1 USD = 129.43 KES, 1 GBP = 175.22 KES (Central Bank of Kenya, September 2026)