Ruto Urged to Sack Staff Amid Nationwide Blackout
Since 9 p.m. on Friday, leaders from across the political spectrum have exerted pressure on President William Ruto to take action against the Ministry of Energy and Kenya Power officials for the nationwide blackout that lasted over 12 hours.
To demand accountability, Opiyo Wandayi, minority leader of the National Assembly, and Samson Cherargei, senator of Nandi, noted that the disruption affected the majority of the country’s operations, including economic activities.
Wandayi, who also serves as a member of parliament for Ugunja, lamented that the outage was a disservice to Kenyans already struggling with high electricity costs.
“It is a scandal that calls for heads to roll, but more importantly, there is a need to determine what is going on at KPLC, which continues to enjoy a long monopoly but does not provide value for taxpayers’ money,” the member of parliament urged.
Cherargei, for his part, demanded that the utility company compensate Kenyans for losses sustained during the over 12-hour disruption.
The Senator deemed the power disruption regrettable because Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) was impacted by the failure of backup generators.
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Notably, in response to demands for accountability, Parliament summoned KPLC CEO Joseph Siror and Energy CS Davis Chirchir to investigate the incident.
On Thursday, August 31, the duo is scheduled to appear before the Energy Committee to explain why the country was cast into darkness.
In the meantime, Kenya Power attributed the power outage to a system malfunction at one of its stations.
Joy Mdivo, the head of the utility’s board of directors, disclosed that its station in Turkana, which is essential to the national grid, experienced a blackout. She maintained that technicians investigated the issue further and revealed that the outage would continue throughout the weekend.
“Turkana’s failure means a significant amount of power is abruptly unavailable to the grid, so the limited power available has been prioritized and only a few substations have been powered back on.
“The engineers labored all night and were able to convince our Turkwel power station to add more energy to the grid. Today, additional components should be connected, but weekend interruptions are still anticipated,” she stated.
Ruto Urged to Sack Staff Amid Nationwide Blackout