Residents of Katani location in Athi River, Machakos County have raised concerns over what they term as abnormal power outages in the area.
Industrialists, jua kali artisans, local traders, alongside essential service providers like healthcare and the public in general said lately there are high rates of power outages in the region.
Residents said the unannounced power blackouts have interrupted their daily businesses. They said the area had suffered power blackouts for the last two weeks.
“Our businesses are hurt with these outages, we urge Kenya Power to fix the problem soonest so that the situation can be restored,” Joseph Kiio, a resident said.
Kiio said it not easy to tell when a blackout will happen since Kenya Power has allegedly not been issuing them with prior notices.
Katani Hospital director Modesta Makali said the facility has been adversely affected by the outage.
She said they were forced to either transfer patients or reschedule procedures like surgeries due to power outages.
“I’m a resident of Katana, we have had power outages for some time now, over two weeks,” Makali told reporters at Katani Hospital on Thursday.
She said they were experiencing power blackouts on a daily basis.
“It has affected local businesses. Katani hospital has been seriously affected. Power normally goes off at around 12.00 pm to 6:00 pm or thereabout sometime," Makali said.
" So, we are pleading with those concerned, please, rectify the problem so that we can run our businesses with normalcy."
Makali said they had opted to using a generator, which is very expensive.
“We turn the generator on, whole day. It’s expensive. Surgeries have also to be rescheduled because patients have to be transferred to other facilities with power," Makali said.
"So, it affects us negatively since without power, we can’t take care of our patients in terms of performing certain procedures that require power."
She said operations at the hospital go well uninterrupted whenever there are no outages.
“Scheduled procedures go on well without any interruptions. But, when power goes off unannounced without any notice, it causes distress even to patients at the facility,” Makali said.
She said work has been difficult since ‘you never know when the power will go off’.
“When you want to schedule certain procedures, you don’t know when to schedule because you work at the mercy of power availability,” Makali said.