A sweeping blackout hit Nairobi and Kiambu early Friday morning, plunging most of the city and its suburban area into darkness for nearly three hours.
The blackout, which the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) is yet to address, began a few minutes past midnight and lasted until around 2:30 AM. It left tens of thousands of the utility’s customers without electricity, furthering worries about the integrity of the region’s power grid that were raised last December when Kenya suffered a widespread power outage.
In Nairobi, affected areas included Eastlands, Utawala, Umoja Innercore, Kilimani, Uthiru, Industrial Park, South B, Pipeline, Kawangware, River Close Estates near Mihango Dispensary in Embakasi, and Dandora Phase One near PCEA Church.
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In Kiambu County, areas hit by the power outages included Weitethie, Jomoko, Kivute, Thika, and Lima Road near Mastore Shopping Centre in Juja Farm and its environs.
Nearly half an hour after the Nairobi and Kiambu blackouts, KPLC’s service users reported a separate outage in Kakamega, Narok, Bungoma, and Eldoret, Uasin Gishu, the seemingly hardest-hit area in North Rift.
The power outage in Nairobi comes just three days after heavy rains swept through many of its neighbourhoods, washing out roads and bringing down trees and power lines.
As KPLC is expected to act swiftly to pinpoint the source of the multiple blackouts following hundreds of complaints on social media, experts warn that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense due to human-caused climate change. These events put stress on ageing energy infrastructure and are among the leading causes of major power outages in Kenya.
Experts note that most of the nation’s electrical grid was not built for the present-day climate. Electricity is mainly transmitted and distributed through above-ground transformers, transmission wires, and utility poles, all of which are highly susceptible to extreme weather events.
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