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Millions left without power after nationwide blackout

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A Kenya Power technician maintaining a transmission line. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenyans on Thursday endured a power blackout that hit several parts of the country resulting in financial losses running into millions of shillings as businesses were disrupted.

Kenya Power said the outage was caused by a system disturbance, refusing to divulge more details.

The state-owned firm however assured customers that it was 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 Thursday. 

The firm said it will issue an update on the restoration progress in due course.

The blackout follows the power outage that hit Nairobi, Mount Kenya and coastal regions early this month causing disruption to businesses.

The utility firm also attributed the blackout to a system disturbance.

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.

Manufacturers, commercial building owners, warehouses, farmers and small businesses such as salons and barbershops largely depend on electricity to operate.

An extended outage usually leads to losses and additional expenses from using generators.

Frequent blackouts due to supply shortfalls — and sometimes because of aging distribution and transmission infrastructure — have forced most businesses and wealthy homes to have standby generators.

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