Kenya sees nationwide power blackouts, again

World Today

Kenya now recently experienced a six-hour blackout disrupting businesses across Eastern African nations. The country has faced power blackouts several times in the past. This time, engineers said it was caused by a technical hitch.

CCTV Africa’s Kathryn Omwandho reports.

The effects of the power blackout were felt across the country. Kenya has been struggling to improve its power generation capacity but outdated facilities, reliance on expensive independent power producers, and hydropower have often frustrated efforts and pushed up the cost of power.

As a welder, Newton Luvuga’s business depends on availability of electricity.

“We have not done any work since morning,” Luvuga said.

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As a result, he is likely to go home empty handed. He typically earns about $6 per day.

Across the road, Nicodemus Wambua operates a dry cleaning business.

“My business has been hit hard,” Wambua said. “I have employees whom I have had to send home. I need electricity for this machine to work.”

The last time Kenya suffered a countrywide power blackout, it was blamed on some wayward monkey that found its way into a power generation plant.

That sounded hilarious and this time round, the country’s power distributor was a bit careful, blaming the crisis on a “technical hitch”.

In April, Kenya’s parliament passed a bill compelling the power distributor to compensate consumers for power blackouts exceeding three hours.

The President is yet to sign it into Law.