Residents in parts of Kisauni within Mombasa county have decried loss of businesses and surging crime after a month-long power outage.

The outage has affected hundreds of households in the areas of Kadzonzo within Junda ward who have gone without electricity for the last one month.

A number of businesses including welding, salons, haircut, butcheries, eateries, fish outlets and fruit stores have since closed down after recording huge losses in decomposing stock. Peter Charo, who runs a fish outlet in the area, said he was forced to close the outlet after losing a stock worth Sh300,000.

“I had brought a stock of Red Snapper, Tuna, King Fish, Tafi and other types all the way from Shimoni in South Coast and I was preparing to sell the stock only to encounter this prolonged power outage…you know cold storage cannot run without power and that is how I ended up losing my stock. Now we can’t keep any stock,” explained Charo in an interview.