Consternation strikes Abdulrazak Abdul’s face every time he recalls the countrywide power outage that occurred on Friday night and lasted for approximately 15 hours.

Abdul, a businessman in Mkomani area of Nyali Sub-County in Mombasa, recalls the devastating damage the blackout struck on his business resulting in what he says was ‘traumatising’ loss.

“I own a butchery and dairy. All these are perishable products. The power went off at around 10pm and I also learnt on social media that it could be a much bigger problem than I had thought because it immediately appeared like a countrywide thing,” Abdul said.

The following morning, hundreds of liters of milk had shown signs of going bad and there were no signs of power coming back.

“Several kilograms of meat had started to decompose. I could only sell the milk at a throw away price to a few clients who were willing,” the business man regretted.

In Junda area of Mishomoroni, Kongowea, Barsheba and other parts of the Port City, a number of businesses including welding, salons, butcheries, eateries, fish outlets, and fruit stores have since closed down temporarily after recording huge losses.

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.