Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) has hiked electricity charges by 15.7%, reversing the January cuts by former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration, the Kenyan Wall Street newspaper reported.

The increase in pass-through costs, including fuel, forex and inflation adjustments, has pushed the price of a kilowatt hour unit to 25.3 shillings for domestic consumers who use more than 100 units a month.

High-consuming households and industries will see their power costs rise even higher since the pass-through expenses now account for more than a third of power bills.

The move will directly affect consumer prices for food and manufactured goods, leading to higher living costs, the newspaper reported citing analysts.

On the other hand, the National Treasury's Budget Review and Outlook Paper for 2022 expected the country's economy to grow 5.8% in the fiscal year 2022/23 and average 6.2% over the medium term.

However, it warned that challenges include subsidising pump prices, reducing electricity tariffs by 15% to lower power costs and granting an import duty waiver on 540,000 metric tons of white maize.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com )