Canada cites power outages in travel advisory against Kenya

Kenya Power technicians at work. [File, Standard]

Frequent power outages are among items that have been listed by the Government of Canada as risks when travelling to Kenya. Other items are crime and terrorist attacks.

In a travel advisory, Canada warns its citizens that blackouts may increase the risk of criminal activity in affected areas.

Further, the Canadian government warns that it may be difficult to access essential services such as flights.

"Power outages could affect your ability to purchase basic necessities and impact essential services, such as public transportation including flights, medical services, water supply, telecommunications and banking," reads the advisory.

In a period of four months, Kenya has had four nationwide blackouts which affected, among other services the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has since called on the police to investigate possible acts of sabotage and coverup following the outages at the airport.

In the latest power outage on Sunday, December 11, two generators failed to power immediately affecting terminals 1A and 1E.

"Considering the frequency of the power disruption, and taking into account the fact that JKIA is a facility of strategic national importance, we are making a formal request to the National Police Service to investigate possible acts of sabotage and coverup," said Murkomen.

During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President William Ruto told his Cabinet secretaries that going forward, the embarrassing power outages will not be acceptable.

"I would like to inform you today that the embarrassing power blackouts that have been experienced across the entire country severally since the year began are not going to be acceptable going forward, all stakeholders must play their roles to ensure it does not happen again," said Ruto.