Kenya hit by another nationwide blackout

Kenya was hit by another widespread power outage in the wee hours of Wednesday, leaving much of the country in darkness.

Kenya Power in a statement said that the outage occurred at 1:28 a.m., acknowledging the outage and apologising for the disruption.

However, the power utility company said the cause of the outage was yet to be determined.

"We regret any inconvenience this may have caused and request our customers to be patient as we work towards restoring normalcy at the earliest opportunity. We will provide an update on the progress of the power restoration process in due course," the statement read.

Kenya Power in another update at 4.55 am said power had been restored to most parts of North Rift, Central Rift, Western Kenya, South Nyanza and sections of Nairobi and Mount Kenya.

The blackout, which spared only parts of the Western and North Rift regions, casts a shadow on the reliability of Kenya's electricity grid.

This is not the first time Kenyans have faced such disruptions in recent months. On May 2, 2024, the country was plunged into darkness, with Kenya Power citing a system fault on the grid.

A similar incident occurred on August 31, 2024, when most parts of the country were left in darkness.

Barely a week later on September 6, 2024, hours after Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi assured the public that strategies were being implemented to address frequent outages, the country was once again lightless.

"I am not here to tell you that blackouts will be a thing of the past. But I can assure Kenyans that we have put in place measures and systems that would first and foremost mitigate against the blackouts. But if they happen, there will be a system to respond swiftly," said Wandayi on his maiden visit to Stima Plaza.

The latest blackout comes in the wake of plans by the Ministry of Energy to de-monopolise Kenya Power in the first quarter of 2025. This will end the utility company's 70-year dominance as the nation's only electricity supplier.