Trees blamed for most power outages - Kenya Power

Kenya Power and Lighting Company workers on a transformer 

Major cause of most of the power outages in the country is caused by trees.

This is according to Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Siror.

Speaking on Tuesday, March 10, during a TV interview on KTN, Siror said a larger percentage of power blackouts are caused by trees interfering with power lines, urging the public to cut trees next to power lines.

“I would want to tell the public that about 50-70 per cent is because of trees,” said Siror, adding that the officials have received resistance from the public when cutting trees.

“We entered into a very intensive program of cutting all the trees near our lines. Initially, the public was totally opposed. They were seeing that Kenya Power was doing criminal behavior and some really fought back, but there are those who we managed to persuade and we cut those trees, and within no time they started writing to us, “he said.

Joseph Siror: The biggest challenge, if you look at most of our outages, I would want to tell the public that about 50-70% is because of trees and the unfortunate thing you would recall that about 2-3 years ago, we entered into a very intensive program of cutting all the trees… pic.twitter.com/Xhp6K4dIKh — KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) March 10, 2026

He said they are working to resolve power outages caused by the grid and at the generation level.

He also revealed the introduction of smart meters, which will enable customers to monitor their consumption.

“These are the ones where we don't have to come to your house. The meter is automatically read from one location, and at some point, we are going to afford the customers the ability to look at their consumption. They will be seeing a graph of their consumption on a 24-hour basis,” said Siror