Barely a week after Kenyans were plunged into darkness, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has confirmed yet another power outage in most parts of the country, except the North Rift region and sections of Western region.
The company did not reveal the cause of the morning blackout that occured on Friday, September 6 at around 9 a.m., only noting that it is working to restore power and will notify Kenyans once normalcy returns.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and kindly ask for your patience as our engineers work swiftly to restore service,” the statememt from KPLC noted.
“We will keep you updated on the progress and share more information on the restoration efforts as soon as possible,” it concluded.
Newly appointed Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi recently announced that the government has set up a special team to respond to blackouts in record time.
“I am not here to tell you that blackouts are a thing of the past. What I am here to tell you is that we have put in place measures and systems that would first and foremost mitigate the blackouts. But if they happen, there will be a system to respond swiftly to the blackout and restore power in the shortest time possible,” noted Wandayi.
“We are also continuing to invest in infrastructure, both at the generation level by KenGen and at the transmission level by KETRACO.”
According to the CS, the previous blackout on August 30 was due to a malfunction of equipment at the Suswa substation.
He also called for a detailed report from Kenya Power on technical, operational, human capital, and power system protection aspects as he takes charge of addressing national power outages and further instructed the Kenya Power board to initiate reforms, including reducing energy costs.
“Whilst I noted and commended the board, management and staff for the good work so far done, I directed the board as a matter of urgency embark on a institutional reform pathway and report back to the Ministry,” Wandayi said.
