Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir on Monday revealed the nationwide power blackout that rocked the country on Sunday evening was caused by an overload on the Kisumu- Muhoroni transmission line.
Speaking during a press conference, the CS stated that the sudden increase in the power flow Juja-Lessos-Muhoroni link led to an overload at Olkaria 2 transformers and the Dandora-Juja transmission link which caused the powerlines to drop resulting in the blackout.
CS Chirchir further revealed that Kenya had taken a loan from South Korea and floated a tender for the construction of a new power line for Western Kenya.
“We are building an alternative line to support the west of Kenya, through Narok- Bomet- Awendo to remove the constraint. We are ready to start and we are getting funding from South Korea and the Africa Development Bank,” he added
The Ministry highlighted power generation due to lack of water and transition constraints from little investments in network building as two of the main challenges in electricity production.
"We know the problem. We learnt it was an overload and we felt good because we can fix that problem very quickly unlike when it is a hit. " CS Chirchir stated.
Chirchir further assured Kenyans that the ministry was working towards fixing the frequent incidents, terming it as shameful.
“We are aware that there was a power blackout yesterday, and the question we are now asking is, why so frequently? It is a challenge we are ashamed of as a country, and we must address it,"
“It’s bound to happen again, but we will look at serious maintenance,” he added.
The country has experienced three nationwide power outages in the past three months, with Kenya Power terming it as a system disturbance.
“We have lost electricity supply to various parts of the country due to a suspected fault affecting the power system," a statement from the power utility firm read.
Sunday's outage affected various sectors in the country, including operations at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and the Eldoret Airport where backup generators failed to start.
