Pressure is mounting on the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to explain why the country's biggest airport still cannot automatically switch on to backup power, in a development that continues to hurt the standing of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
Over the weekend, as the country experienced another major blackout, KAA said it took up to 20 minutes from 8:00 pm to 8:20 pm to restore power at JKIA, affecting processes such as immigration and baggage handling.
"At approximately 8 pm today (Saturday), JKIA experienced a disruption in power supply due to an outage from the national grid. The airport's backup generators were activated with full restoration of power occurring within 8-20 minutes," said the corporation in a statement on Saturday.
It added that the synchronisation of the outstanding backup power supply is scheduled to be completed in the next 30 days.
The delay revealed that KAA is yet to put in place an instant power backup, which is a necessity in any modern installation. "KAA is committed to maintaining uninterrupted operations and regrets any inconvenience that this outage might have caused...," they said.
But Kenyans wondered why for all these years KAA had never installed automatic transfer switches to protect such a critical national asset from power interruptions.
"Aren't the generators supposed to have Automatic Transfer Switches? It happened on August 25, and now, this time around," Mr Antony Irungu asked on social media platform X.
"It's so surprising that malls and restaurants have automatic power switches. But JKIA, a whole international airport doesn't," another X user, Mpoa001, wondered.
The country has experienced several nationwide blackouts including one on August 26 that lasted for 20 hours, with supply in some regions going on and off.
The incident saw operations at JKIA come to a standstill, a move that saw Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen fire former KAA managing director Alex Gitari and reshuffle airport managers across the country to fix the problem.
