Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen was left frustrated after a power failure interrupted his speech during the official rollout of the National Mobile Registration Outreach Programme in Nakuru County.
The blackout, which lasted about a minute, occurred as Murkomen was delivering a speech about reforms in national identity cards issuance.
Murkomen was momentarily left unable to deliver his speech after the outage, as technicians scrambled to restore power using a backup generator. While entertainers at the event attempted to quell some tension through song and dance, their efforts did little to ease the CS's frustration.
Once power was restored, Murkomen was quick to call out the technical team responsible for managing the event’s audio and power systems over what he described as a lack of preparedness.
"Someone was only given one job—to take care of the audio systems. But they have failed to resolve that," Murkomen stated.
He added: "Then they will go on social media to claim that the Minister and President have failed. Yet you are also letting us down in small issues like ensuring a public address is smooth. Did you not know power could fail and have a backup in place?"
While urging the youth to work with professionalism, Murkomen also appeared to suggest the team contracted to provide technical support during the event would not be engaged again in the future.
Besides power failure, Murkomen's event also saw some mild drama as a determined woman, later identified as Brian Odhiambo's mother, walked up to the dais to directly address the CS.
The woman, dressed in a T-shirt that read "Justice for my son," was nearly tackled by security personnel, but Murkomen waved them away to give the woman a chance to speak.
After briefly whispering her grievances, the woman was encouraged to stick around until the CS finished his speech, after which he would directly tackle her concerns.
During his address, Murkomen stated that investigations into the disappearance of Brian were nearing completion and assured that those found responsible would face the full force of the law.
"This is a message directly from the government. Brian did not wrong us in any way that he could just disappear. Even if he had wronged us, he was supposed to be arrested, taken to the police station, and charged in court. As your Interior CS, we will not tolerate situations where any Kenyan can just disappear without being accounted for," Murkomen asserted.
