Saturday evening nationwide blackout leaves millions without power
Nairobi and other parts of the country plunged into darkness on Saturday evening. Kenya Power says it is doing everything possible to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible.
A power blackout hit several parts of the country on Saturday at 6.20pm.
Electricity supply was yet to be restored as at 9.30pm in the affected areas even as Kenya Power says the outage is a result of system disturbance without divulging more details.
The state-owned utility firm has since assured customers that it is doing everything possible to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible.
“We have lost bulk power supply to various parts of the country due to a system disturbance and we are working to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible,” said Kenya Power in a statement on Saturday.
The firm said it will issue an update on the restoration progress in due course.
Most of the affected areas confirmed an outage a few minutes past 6pm.
The blackout follows a power outage that hit the country in December last year that also left millions without power for hours in what they said was also a system disturbance.
The blackout follows the power outage that hit Nairobi, Mount Kenya and coastal regions early this month causing disruption to businesses. Kenya Power also attributed the blackout to a system disturbance.
The December blackout followed another power outage that hit Nairobi, Mount Kenya and coastal regions in November that was also attributed the blackout to a system disturbance.
In 2021, parts of the transmission network connecting Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) to Suswa collapsed affecting power supply to the national grid.
LTWP is the second largest supplier of electricity to the national grid at peak demand, with the collapse of the transmission towers forcing Kenya Power to resort to costlier thermal power to plug the deficit.
The growing incidences of large-scale blackouts are a pain to businesses such as retailers, manufacturers, hospitals, schools, and other entities who are forced to switch to costly temporary power sources such as generators.
Businesses that cannot afford these alternative sources of power are forced to wait for Kenya Power to restore supply even as they count losses.
Kenya Power has been grappling with an aging electricity transmission network that is prone to breakdowns causing undue outages.
On Thursday, the expensive contracts with independent power producers (IPPs), were blamed for runaway electricity costs, terming it as the next stage for a showdown between MPs and President William Ruto’s government.
Drama unfolded after the National Assembly committee threw out Kenya Power bosses, accusing them of lacking tangible measures to reduce power costs, which lawmakers blamed on exorbitant deals with IPPs run by cartels shielded by the utility firm.
The development came two days after the Cabinet lifted the former President Uhuru Kenyatta-era ban on procurement of new IPPs, citing the need to increase power generation at a time cyclic drought is becoming more extreme, thus reducing hydropower generation.
The management of Kenya Power led by acting Managing Director Geoffrey Muli was ejected from the committee by lawmakers who vowed to unmask powerful cartels in the firm that are benefiting from costly deals with IPPs.
