Transport and Roads Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen says he has made a formal request to the National Police Service (NPS) to investigate what he terms as ‘possible acts of sabotage and coverup’ after the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) was plunged into darkness on Sunday evening after a nationwide power outage.
The blackout, the third of its kind in three months, affected key infrastructures including JKIA where the backup generators failed to power up, according to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
Amid heighten
“Changeover to the standby generators ensured power was immediately restored to most parts of JKIA. Regrettably, supply did not immediately resume at terminals 1A and 1E,” he wrote on Sunday night.
He further noted that he led a team composed of Transport Principal Secretary (PS) Mohamed Daghar, KAA Chairman Caleb Kositany and Managing Director Henry Ogoye among other KAA officials to assess the situation at JKIA.
Murkomen further proposed that the frequent disruption of power raises a red flag, proposing a probe into the matter and apprehending those who will be found culpable.
“In the meantime, the cleanup of the mess at JKIA continues. The KAA Board is under strict instructions to carry on with the reform agenda and the management to implement, as directed, the report of the technical committee which I recently constituted,” added Murkomen.
This is the third outage, the first outage was on August 25, while the second was on November 11.
During the outage on November 11, it took over 12 hours to restore power in most parts of the country.
In August, after Kenya Power issued a brief statement announcing a “system disturbance leading to loss of bulk power supply,” Murkomen apologised after passengers were stranded at JKIA.
“I am really sorry for what has happened. There is no excuse worth reporting and there is no reason why our airport is in darkness,” he said in a statement close to midnight.
KAA has apologised to affected passengers noting that that other than Terminal 1A and 1E, the rest of the airport, including the JKIA Tower and Runway, remained fully operational.
Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has said that normalcy has been restored in Mt Kenya region, South Nyanza, Western, Central and North Rift, North Eastern and most parts of Nairobi.
ed concerns and censures from a majority of Kenyans, CS Murkomen took to X, formerly Twitter, saying that efforts to restore power at the international airport were underway.
