Kenya suffers nationwide power outage after ‘grid disturbance’
Kenyans on Saturday woke up to a countrywide power outage following a fault in Kenya Power’s main supply line.
The blackout started at 5:49am and affected operations in major hospitals, including the Kenyatta National Hospital and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“We have lost power supply in the national grid due to a system disturbance which occurred on our transmission network at 5:49 am this morning,” said Kenya Power in a statement.
It added that their engineers were on the ground, working to identify the hitch and restore normal electricity supply.
The outage comes at a time the Energy ministry has announced an upsurge in water levels in key hydroelectricity dams as a result of heavy rains and flooding in parts of the country.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter Wednesday said Masinga dam, which supports power production at the Masinga Hydroelectric Power Station had exceeded its reservoir capacity reaching a historic 1,057.9 meters above the sea level.
On Saturday, power started to be restored in phases after hours.
Kenyans expressed their disappointment and inconveniences caused by the early morning outage, with some pointing at incompetencies at the power supplier.