Kenya’s nationwide blackout blamed on sabotage

 A power blackout that plunged Kenya into darkness on Sunday was a possible act of sabotage, a minister says.

It hit at about 20:00 local time (17:00 GMT) – Kenya’s third nationwide black­out in the past four months.

The outage disrupted several services, including the main airport in the capital, Nairobi, where two terminals were with­out power for several hours.

Many Kenyans have demanded answers, as anger and frustration mounts over the recurring power disruptions.

Transport Minister Kipchumba Mur­komen – who has been criticised for the time it took to restore power at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Sunday – has asked police to investigate the possibility that the recur­rent power outages were sabotage.

“Considering the frequency of the power disruption, and taking into account the fact that JKIA is a facility of strategic national importance, we are making a for­mal request to the National Police Service to investigate possible acts of sabotage and coverup,” he posted on X.

After Kenya suffered its longest coun­trywide power outage in recent years in August, Mr Murkomen pledged that a power outage at the airport would “not happen again”.

Sunday’s blackout affected two of the busiest JKIA terminals, with the airports authority explaining that the back-up gen­erators serving those terminals had “failed to immediately activate”.

Some Kenyans have suggested that the power cuts could be part of a plot to justify privatising the state-run electric­ity provider, Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).

Other Kenyans have disagreed, instead blaming KPLC’s incompetence for the blackouts.

Power had been restored to most of the country by noon on Monday, except for some parts of Nairobi and the Coast region.

In its most recent update, Kenya Power said it was “working round the clock to restore normalcy to the remaining areas as soon as possible”.

Energy Minister Davis Chirchir has attributed the outage to a powerline over­load, which then caused a failure to the country’s entire power network. —BBC

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