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Electricity supply shortfall fuels fresh load shedding
Electricity generation in recent years has nearly stagnated due to a freeze on new power purchase agreements.
Kenya Power has been forced to ration electricity due to reduced production as the country increasingly relies on Ethiopia and Uganda to shore up supplies.
President William Ruto made the stark admission on Tuesday, revealing that Kenya Power has been forced to cut off electricity supplies to some regions between 5pm and 10pm as the country grapples with reduced local generation and an ageing transmission network.
Electricity generation in recent years has nearly stagnated due to a freeze on new power purchase agreements (PPAs), leading to a reduced local supply.
The surge in demand has forced Kenya Power to import more from Ethiopia and Uganda, with the share of imported electricity in the national grid more than doubling in the year ended June 2025.
Rationing of electricity is used to prevent overloads on the system and blackouts whenever supply is lower than demand.
“In Kenya, between 5pm and 10pm, we have to do load shedding. We have to shut off power in some areas to be able to power others because our energy is not enough,” said Dr Ruto at the United Nations Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, Qatar.
“Energy deficits hold back opportunities.”
The Ministry of Energy had not responded to queries on the regions most affected by the load shedding and the amount of additional electricity needed to end this crisis.
Kenya Power has not signed any new PPAs since 2018, following a freeze by Cabinet and later extended by Parliament last year. This has left Kenya in a scenario where local generation lags behind the growth in demand.
The freeze on new PPAs was meant to allow for scrutiny of the existing ones amid concerns that Kenya Power is tied to expensive deals with electricity generators, ultimately denying consumers cheaper electricity.
Imports accounted for 10.6 per cent or 1.53 billion units of the 14.38 billion units Kenya Power bought in the year to June 2025, up from 4.87 per cent in June 2023 and one per cent in 2021.
Besides the reduced supply, an ageing system has also prompted power rationing in a bid to prevent the system from collapsing whenever demand surges.
The Energy ministry announced plans to ration electricity, especially in western Kenya, from September last year as a short-term measure to reduce the electricity load and keep the grid stable whenever demand surges.
The inability of the ageing grid to accommodate a sudden surge in electricity has, in the past, thrown Kenya into blackouts, forcing the ministry to cut off some areas to protect power lines.
Kenya Power says that it needs billions of shillings to revamp the lines and ensure that they are able to accommodate the sudden load surges.
But it is the low local generation compared to a fast-rising demand which remains the biggest headache to Kenya Power’s efforts to avert rationing.
Kenya recorded seven new peak demands last year alone, pointing to the rapidly growing appetite for electricity.
Peak demand for electricity— the time when energy consumption is at its highest point— grew by 243 Megawatts between 2022 and August this year while local generation has increased marginally due to the freeze on new PPAs.
The highest peak demand remains the 2,392 MW which was recorded in August this year amid increased connections and economic activities.
Demand for electricity in Kenya is highest between 1900 hours-2100 hours, the time when Kenya Power is forced to cut off some regions in order to protect the grid.
Load shedding (also known as rolling blackouts) refers to scenarios where a power utility, in this case Kenya Power, is forced to cut off supply in some regions. This helps to prevent overloads on the grid whenever demand outstrips supply.
The forced power rationing explains why Kenya Power is seeking an additional 50-100 Megawatts from Ethiopia to meet the surge in demand in the evenings.
Kenya Power opened talks with Ethiopia Electric Power in March this year for additional MW outside the 200MW being imported under the 25-PPA that Nairobi penned with Addis Ababa in 2022.
The imports from Ethiopia will double from December 2026 in line with provisions of the PPA, which also allows Kenya Power to re-negotiate the prices.
Hydropower from Ethiopia is the second cheapest with a kilowatt-hour priced at $0.065 (Sh8.44), behind locally-produced hydropower whose price averaged Sh3.83 last year.
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