Power outages a big drain on the economy

The Coast region experienced a major power blackout on Friday night. This comes after other parts of the country experienced similar blackouts in January this year. Such occurrences have become commonplace and Kenyans are resigned to it, yet that should not be the case.

During last week’s inter-ministerial public symposium, one of the key areas in which the Jubilee government claimed credit was in power generation. First, a significant amount of megawatts of geothermal power has been added onto the national grid, cutting down power costs by 68 per cent.

Additionally, the Government boasted it had been able to nearly double the number of those with electricity connection from 2.2 million in 2013 to 4.3 million in only three years.

This achievement is eclipsed by the preoccupation with getting as many people as possible connected to power supply yet the infrastructure has largely remained the old type, which cannot support the excess demand.

In many instances, this has resulted in sporadic power outages as the outdated transformers and power grid lines break down at an alarming rate.

Power outages are not only occasioning a lot of losses to businesses, they contribute to insecurity and are a threat to life, especially where hospitals lose power while say, operating on patients. Hours of inactivity result in industries making huge losses.

As a major tourist destination and gateway into the Kenya and neighbouring landlocked countries that rely on the port of Mombasa for their exports and imports, the last thing Mombasa needs is a power blackout. That has the capacity of grinding everything to a halt and causing anxiety among tourists.

Hydro and geothermal energy supply is doubtless erratic and there is urgent need to look into ways of generating nuclear energy. The Kenya Nuclear Energy Board must put its stamp on the energy sector.