Kenya Power is rationing electricity due to reduced supply in what has forced the country to increasingly rely on Ethiopia and Uganda for its energy needs.
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.
“In Kenya, between 5:00pm 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,” Dr Ruto said while addressing the United Nations Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, Qatar.
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’s electricity reserves are under intense pressure amid rising demand.
The energy woes have been compounded by a freeze on new power purchase agreements (PPAs), which means that Kenya Power cannot bring more producers to the grid to supply clean and affordable electricity.
This had forced Kenya to increasingly rely on Ethiopia for its power needs, with imports jumping from 337 million kWh in 2022 to 1.53 billion kWh in the year to June.
Rationing of electricity is used to prevent overloads on the system and countrywide blackouts whenever supply is lower than demand.
Without Ethiopia’s power, Kenya would have been pushed into an electricity crisis that would have prompted blackouts and power rationing running for hours on alternating days.
This had the potential to slow down economic growth, increase the cost of doing business as firms tap costly generators and make the country unattractive as a destination for foreign capital.
Kenya Power has not signed any new PPAs since 2018 following a freeze imposed by the Cabinet, which was later extended by Parliament. This has left Kenya in a situation 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 was tied to expensive deals with electricity generators, ultimately denying consumers cheaper electricity.
Imports accounted for 10.6 percent or 1.53 billion units of the 14.38 billion units bought by Kenya Power in the year to June 2025, up from 4.87 percent in June 2023 and one percent in 2021.
Besides the reduced supply, an aging grid has also prompted power rationing in a bid to prevent the system from collapsing whenever demand surges.
The Ministry of Energy announced plans to ration electricity, especially in western Kenya from September last year as a short-term measure to reduce the electricity load and thus keep the grid stable whenever demand surges.
Inability of the aging grid to accommodate sudden increase in the flow of electricity has in the past thrown the country into blackouts, prompting the ministry to cut off some areas to protect the 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 the utility firm’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 (MW) 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 that 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 MW 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 supply outside the 200MW being imported under the 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.
