Former Kiambu governor William Kabogo has joined Kenyans on social media expressing their frustrations with Kenya Power following a nationwide outage.
In a statement shared, the utility firm noted that the electricity outage was caused by system disturbance and subsequently issued an apology to Kenyans inconvenienced by the unexpected power blackout.
They also assured Kenyans that restoration works were underway.
“We have lost bulk power supply to various parts of the country due to a system disturbance,” the statement reads in parts.
“We are working to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused,” the statement added.
However, a section of Kenyans including Kabogo are calling for an end to Kenya Power’s monopoly.
The former Kiambu county boss says that opening up the industry for competition will be a win for Kenyans since companies will deliver power at less than half the current prices of Kenya Power.
“Time to end KPLC monopoly, @WilliamsRuto open up the industry for competition many companies will deliver power to the people at less than half the current prices of KPLC and I know you’re aware,” Kabogo tweeted.
Time to end KPLC monopoly, @WilliamsRuto open up the industry for competition many companies will deliver power to the people at less than half the current prices of KPLC and I know you’re aware.
— Hon. William Kabogo (@honkabogo) March 4, 2023
Frequent outages
There have been frequent power outages as part of Kenya Power’s planned outages.
On February 28, 2023, Kenya Power issued a statement alerting Kenyans of a scheduled outage from 9 am to 5 pm in parts of eight counties including Nairobi, Machakos, Uasin Gishu, West Pokot, Siaya, Kakamega, Kiambu and Kwale.
On January 31, 2023, the utility firm issued a customer alert for a scheduled power outage from 9 am to 5 pm in parts of seven counties.
The seven counties that were affected by the planned power interruptions included; Nairobi, Kajiado, Kisumu, Siaya, Nyeri, Meru and Kiambu.
On November 24, 2022, there was a nationwide power outage.
The utility firm, in a statement, said it experienced a ‘system disturbance’ that caused the blackout in various parts of the country.
“We have lost bulk power supply to various parts of the country due to a system disturbance and we are working to restore normalcy within the shortest time possible,” Kenya Power said.