Traders in Kenya count losses after power outage

Kenyans were left counting losses after a power outage hit the country yesterday morning following a technical hitch on the main power supply line.

A statement from Kenya Power read in part: “This morning at 5.34am we experienced a technical hitch that led to tripping of our main power supply line – Olkaria Nairobi 220 KV line consequently leading to a power outage in most parts of the country.”

However, by 10.30am on Saturday power was restored to North Rift, Western, South Nyanza, Kisii, Mt Kenya and Central regions. “We are glad to inform the public that power supply to the following areas has been restored: North Rift, west Kenya, South Nyanza, Kisii, Mt Kenya and parts of Central Rift,” said the statement.

Flights were delayed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi after the standby generators failed to pick up forcing the operators to turn them on manually.

A statement by the Kenya Airports Authority on one of its social media accounts read: “Our generators which are meant to automatically provide alternative power failed. We manually rectified the problem. Power is back at the airport and our teams are working on clearing the long queues being experienced. We are investigating to establish why the generators failed to automatically pick after this morning’s outage.”

Kenyans took to Twitter to chide Kenya Power over the incident. Two months ago, the country was plunged into darkness after a monkey interfered with equipment at the Gitaru Power Station. Mombasa residents and the business community were outraged by the power outage that lasted for close to 10 hours. Shopkeepers, restaurants and butcheries decried lost business. A number of clearing agents said frequent power outages had made them to resort to generators to run operations which has inflated expenses.

“We’re asking the government to intervene as business people are losing millions due to this sudden outages. It is easier to prepare for outages when notices have been published in the media,” said Terrence Omondi.

Small scale traders in Naivasha were the most affected by the blackout. Hospitals and major hotels in Naivasha and Gilgil towns were not spared either with the management forced to turn to generators.

In Kericho County, hospitals, hotels and cyber cafes were hardest hit. County heath executive Hellen Ngeno said the county had incurred an extra expense of fuelling generators in health facilities like Kericho district hospital.

“We have been fo-rced to rely on the backup generators to run our major hospitals. This in in an extra expense but nonetheless we don’t expect the power blackout to adversely affect provision of health services,” said Ms Ngeno.

And in Kakamega County saloons, barber shops and health facilities were affected. The county government distributed generators to public hospitals. Operations at St Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital were not affected as they have a generator.

“We are lucky that we have a backup generator which we use whenever there is power outage because we are dealing with people’s lives,” said Michael Mugo, the hospital administrator.

Operations in public and private institutions in Eldoret town were disrupted. Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital CEO Wilson Aruasa said operations were not affected by the outage because they have a backup generator but challenged Kenya Power to ensure constant supply to hospitals.

“We are lucky we have a backup generator that smoothly picked up but the concern is that hospitals handle lives of individuals and rely mainly on electricity. They need to give us a dedicated power line that cannot be affected by such hitches,” said Dr Aruasa.

Geoffrey Bartilol, the proprietor of Goshen Hotel, said the power outage affected their business especially preparation of meals. “We ran extremely late as we had to look for alternative power supply,” he said.

- Reports by Jeckonia Otieno, Mwangi Muraguri, Ignatius Odanga, Nikko Tanui, Antony Gitonga, and Michael Olinga