Kenyans count huge losses in power blackout

It was a black Tuesday yesterday as the country was plunged into darkness following a suspected case of vandalism which led to the collapse of a high-voltage power line.

The resulting countrywide power outage left crucial services disrupted leading to massive losses across the sectors.

Wananchi and small businesses that operate without back-up generators saw perishable goods going to waste while casual labourers were sent home due to the power outage.

And although health providers reverted to using generators to run their services, they complained of incurring unexpected operational bills after being forced to buy diesel to enable them to preserve vaccines and other medicines. 

Counties affected included Kisii, Lamu and Kisumu, the latter which recently installed a 300KV generator worth Sh8 million.

Kenya Power attributed the blackout which started at 10.45am to the collapse of masts supporting a high voltage power line connection to the Kiambere hydroelectric dam.

“We have lost power supply due to the collapsed tower on the Kiambere – Embakasi high voltage transmission power line at 10.45 am this morning,” said a statement from the power distributor.

Although the company said power supply had been restored in Nairobi, West Kenya, North Rift, South Nyanza and Central regions by afternoon, damage had already been done, with critical service providers reverting to back-up generators or closing their businesses.

Last evening, there was another reported outage that left various areas adjacent to the capital in complete darkness.

In a statement, Kenya Power said the Suswa-Embakasi power transmission line that evacuates power to Athi River, Embakasi and City Centre developed a sustained fault in the evening.

“This has resulted in a power outage affecting sections of the Nairobi Central Business District, Embakasi, Kilimani, Hurlingham, Syokimau, Athi River, Kitengela, Mlolongo and adjacent areas,” said the statement by Kenya Power last evening.

A spot-check by People Dailyshowed that in Lamu county, King Fahad County Referral Hospital, Mpeketoni, Faza and Witu sub county hospitals suspended X-ray and incubator services, as the health facilities reverted to generators for power supply.

“All our key facilities are currently running on diesel generators since the power went out. And this is very costly. But some services such as X-ray are unavailable because they consume a lot of power.

We have been forced to make adjustments here and there,” said County Health Executive Anne Gathoni. 

She added: “For incubators, we have our biomedical engineers on standby to handle any mechanical challenges that may come up.” 

Suspended production

An almost similar situation was experienced in Mombasa where all health facilities were put on generators. However, county communication director in charge of Health Richard Chacha said operations in all the facilities were“running smoothly” with the support of backup generators.

At at the Revital Healthcare (EPZ) Limited, a Kenyan medical supply manufacturer, operations were affected with the firm operating at half its capacity.

Officials said they had asked some of the  staff to leave until power was reinstated, forcing the firm to suspend production of surgical face masks, Covid-19 antigen test kits and malaria rapid diagnostic test kits.

“Right now we are running at 50 per cent capacity because of this power outage.

That means I have to see what products I have to stop producing. We are focusing on vaccine syringes and this has translated to significant loss because we have been forced to send at least 100 people home,” said Roneek Vora, the sales and market product development director.

Across Kisumu, Kisii, Kajiado and Mombasa, proprietors of small scale businesses including restaurants, cyber cafe operators complained of huge losses as a result of the blackout. “I have incurred big losses as a result of this outage. 

The packets of milk I had ordered risk going bad because by the time the milk arrived here, we already had a blackout and hours have lapsed without it being refrigerated,” said Salim Hamisi of Kongowea milk stores.

In Kisumu City, Otieno Auche, who operates a barber shop at Kondele, said power went off as he was attending to a client on his way to work.

“I though the blackout would last a short while but it went on for a long time, seriously affecting our work,” said Auche. 

Shem Ojiambo, who operates a cyber cafe opposite Maseno University, said he had lost a lot of money from students who needed to browse and photocopy various documents.