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Kenyans in darkness as most parts of the country hit by blackout

Blackout

A dark Kisumu street in a past power blackout. 

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Kenyans were plunged into darkness as most parts of the country were hit by a power outage on Sunday evening, December 10.

In a statement, Kenya Power acknowledged the disruption of electricity supply to various parts of the country as it assured that power would be restored "within the shortest time possible."

"We have lost electricity supply to various parts of the country due to a suspected fault affecting the power system. We are working to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible," the utility firm said.

Several parts of the country including Nairobi, Kisumu, Machakos, Kirinyaga, Mombasa, Tharaka Nithi, Makueni, Kakamega, Lamu and Nakuru have been plunged into darkness.

Exactly one month ago, Kenyans were also plunged into darkness when several parts of the country experienced a blackout on Saturday November 11.

The extent of the blackout, which was reported at around 7.50pm, was not immediately known, with Kenya Power admitting that parts of the country had lost power and that it was deploying its engineers to deal with the situation and restore normalcy.

Nationwide blackouts have become quite common in recent times, with more than five recorded in the last 12 months.

On August 26, there was a nationwide blackout that lasted more than 20 hours, with some regions experiencing on and off power supply.

The August blackout followed another in March, which Kenya Power blamed on a system disturbance.

Also, in December and November 2022, Nairobi, Mount Kenya and the Coast regions experienced power outages. The blackouts were also attributed to a system disturbance.

Kenya Power is the country's sole electricity distributor, and most of its power comes from the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), which is the main supplier.