Outrage as Kenya is hit by fourth national blackout in five years, Kenya Power apology disparaged

At 6:25pm on Saturday, March 4, 2023, the national utility firm, Kenya Power reported a countrywide power outage, the fourth national blackout in five years in a row plunging the entire country into darkness.

Kenyans in reaction expressed dismay, anger and frustrations over possible losses to business and concerns that critical installations like hospitals could have suffered similar fate including exposing patients on life support machines to unprecedented unfortunate fate.

For three hours before the power was restored, the outage caused huge financial losses and uneven disruption to work for people.

However, those who were commercial buildings and residential apartments with generator backup power were not most affected.

The country’s sole power distributor enjoying absolute monopoly attributed the outage to a fault on the Suswa-Loyangalani transmission line in what it described as a “system disturbance.”

“We have lost bulk power supply to various parts of the country due to a system disturbance.” A statement from Kenya Power read in part.

on January 11, 2022, similar scenario played out when a third countrywide power outage was reported throwing the whole country into a four hours’ blackout after a transmission line allegedly broke down.

The then Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) George Kinoti announced probe into Kenya Power operations following intermittent power outages.

Kinoti said that his officers had taken interest in the collapse of four steel pylons in Nairobi Imara Daima that caused a nationwide blackout for hours.

“We cannot rule out anything until investigations establish the probable cause,” he said.

Kenya Power initially attributed the major power blackout on vandalism by scrap metal dealers which had weakened the heavy structures.

According to the utility company the vandals came from the nearby Mukuru kwa Njenga slums from where the incrementally cut away at the towers usually at night and late sold the steel pieces to scrap metal dealers.

“Our investigations indicate that the Kiambere-Embakasi power line collapsed due to vandalism of support bracings in four transmissions towers near Imara Daima Estate in Nairobi,” Kenya power highlighted.

The country suffered a similar experience in October 2020 when widespread power outage that ran until late in the night sparked renewed uproar over the highly monoplised nature of power distribution in the country.

Majorly, the outage affected two major lines supplying parts of Nairobi, Rift Valley, Western Kenya and South Nyanza.

The then Kenya Power Managing Director Bernard Ngugi’s led institution did not give elaborate explanation on what caused what they termed as ‘technical hitch’.

“We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused and reassure them that our technical team is currently working to identify the root cause and restore power to the affected areas,” Kenya Power said in a statement.

The power outage occurred at around 7pm but three hours later, around 9:30pm, the company issued another statement indicating that the issue had been resolved.

“We would like to inform our customers that we have restored power to the areas that were affected by an outage this evening, following a technical hitch that impacted two major lines supplying parts of Nairobi, Rift Valley, Western Kenya and South Nyanza. We would like to once again apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused,” the statement reads.

Currently, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company PLC (Kenya Power) has a monopoly on power sales given its ownership and operationalization of most of the electricity transmission and distribution system in the country.

As of June 2020, Kenya Power, the sole listed power distributor was selling electricity to over 7.5 million clients.

Pundits contend that a web of well-connected technical insider cartels working in collusion with external investor players have been frustrating full implementation of Energy Act 2019 that provides for the opening up of the sector.

Effectively, the well-choreographed managed process thwarted efforts by state-owned Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) from direct electricity sales to create competition and efficiency.

In March last year, Kengen expressed interest in targeting flower firms and large industries in the proposed Naivasha Industrial Park as first customers for direct electricity sales.

However, Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) is yet to act on this proposal.

Until now, KenGen has been restricted to electricity generation, alongside Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

The skyrocketing cost of production attributed to high cost of unreliable power supply has adversely affected key sectors.

Early this week, the cabinet has approved the contracting of new Independent Power Producers (IPPs) with an aim of increasing power generation in the country.

According to the Cabinet, the decision was arrived due to the current drought situation in the country that has reduced dispatch of hydroelectric power.

The move comes after recommendations by the task force recommended by former President Uhuru Kenyatta to review PPAs signed between Kenya Power and all electricity generators in 2021.

This came after revelations that Kenya Power had sunk into financial blackouts and debts in the financial year ended June the same year after signing expensive Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and that the installed capacity was greater than the peak demand.

In June 2021, while appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC), former Kenya Power Managing Director Bernard Ngugi declined to reveal the owners of beneficiary firms and 17 Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that committed the loss making entity to the shady dealings.

“Power Purchase Agreements have contractual provisions which would require more time to obtain consent and authorisation from court processes because of confidentiality clauses such as Non-Disclosure Agreements,” Ngugi said.

According to Kenya Power records, some of the listed independent power producers in the country are, Iberafrica Power, Tsavo Power, Thika Power, BioJuole Kenya Limited, Mumias-Cogeneration and OrPower 4.

Others are Rabai Power, Imenti Tea Factory Hydro, Gikira Hydro, Triumph Power, Gulf Power, and Regen-Terem Hydro.

Kenya Power’s electricity purchase costs stood at about Sh82.1billion in the financial year 2020, accounting for over half of its operating costs.

In December last year, lawyer Joy Brenda Masinde, a close ally of the President William Ruto was appointed as board chairperson of Kenya Power.

Masinde succeeded her predecessor Vivienne Yeda who served for two years as the board’s chairperson.

Yeda was kicked out of the board by the Treasury barely three years after joining the firm.

Masinde played a key role in Kenya Kwanza ahead of the last year’s August polls in which he became victorious.

She has been appointed alongside six other Directors during the utility’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Friday.

Other directors include National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u, Principal Secretary Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Dr. Duncan Ojwang, Eng. Albert Mugo, Logan Christi and Veska Kangogo.