- Streets in major towns and cities also became deserted as the buzz of machinery suddenly stopped.
- Hospitals were forced to rely on backup generators to continue their vital operations.
Image: SCREENGRAB
On August 26, a catastrophic failure in the country's power grid caused a nationwide power blackout.
The country was plunged into darkness with homes, businesses, and even hospitals being left without electricity, bringing everyday life to a standstill.
Streets in major towns and cities also became deserted as the buzz of machinery suddenly stopped.
Hospitals were forced to rely on backup generators to continue their vital operations.
JKIA power outage
One of the most critical effects of the blackout was, however, felt at the airports with Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) which is the busiest in East Africa being the most affected.
Flights were grounded as departure boards went blank with passengers finding themselves stranded.
The more than two-hour outage also resulted in financial losses for airlines even though the costs were not made public.
Amidst, the blame games and confusion at the facility- key changes were immediately effected with Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) managing director Alex Gitari being shown the door.
Gitari whose sole responsibility is to ensure the smooth functioning of the airports was held accountable.
Authority's General Manager Project and Engineering Services Fred Odawo also had his contract terminated.
It emerged that KAA had not adequately prepared for such a possible occurrence with backup generators failing.
KAA said in a statement that one of their generators failed to start.
"Following a nationwide power blackout, one of the generators serving JKIA's T1A and Parking Silo failed to start, resulting power outage in a section of the airport," the statement read.
In the changes made by Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, Gitari’s contract was terminated with Head of Corporate Planning at the authority Henry Ogoye being picked to replace him.
"By mutual consent, the contract of Alex Gitari, who has been the managing director of Kenya Airports Authority, has been terminated," Murkomen announced when he toured the facility.
Samuel Mwochache was appointed in an acting capacity to the position to replace Odawo.
MPs also visited the airport on a fact-finding mission where it was established that spent a total of Sh162 million to procure two 'dysfunctional' generators.
Ogoye told the legislators that the contract for the supply of the generators procured in 2020 had been terminated.
Out of the total contract sum, Ogoye disclosed that KAA had paid Sh110 million to the contractor before its termination.
"We had a challenge with the performance of that contract. We had paid Sh110 million and the remaining amount was for commissioning," Ogoye said.
The contract was issued in 2020 and it involved the supply, installation, and commissioning of two standby generators and their associated automatic changeover switches, fuel storage, reticulation and maintenance.
Image: FILE
Murkomen further initiated an internal review to identify the shortcomings and reevaluate emergency protocols.
He directed that the two generators be commissioned immediately.
Regions including Nairobi, Rift Valley, Mt Kenya and Western Kenya were also affected by the power outage.
What lawmakers said
A section of Opposition leaders called for the resignation of Murkomen and his Energy cabinet secretary Davis Chirchir over the mishap.
Makueni Senator Dan Maanzo said the duos failed in their respective dockets.
"Chirchir and Murkomen should resign. There is no way you should risk the lives of so many people and still stay in office," he said in a TV interview with KTN.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei on his part suggested that Kenya Power compensates traders for losses caused as a result of power outage.
Cherargei said that KPLC should be held responsible since losses from power outages are massive.
"The KPLC must quantify and compensate for the loss of lives and businesses lost during the massive blackout across the country," he said.
The UDA Senator went further and stated that Kenya's level of preparedness to address the emergency should be top-notch.
Many business owners in the country continued to bore the brunt of the blackout as they counted huge losses.
In Nairobi’s CBD, businesses that rely on power opted to use generators, while others remained closed during the day.
Former Mukurweini MP Kabando wa Kabando took issue with the sacking of Gitari.
"It was already in the books that Ruto's UDA was craving to out KAA MD Alex Gitari. The excuse to sack him arrived last night. Rais won't sack his men - CS Murkomen & CS Chirchir. Sacred cows uncorking whisky at KPLC, KAA. We need Ruto to succeed but he's tribal, inept, chaotic," Kabando said in a post.
What caused the power outage?
When he appeared before the MPs on September 15, Chirchir said it was not possible to apportion culpability to any individual or a firm following a nationwide power outage.
Chirchir who had faced the National Assembly Committee on Energy chaired by Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka noted that transient faults are not unusual occurrences in any power system.
Image: FILE
"When they occur, their severity and the status of system resilience influence how the system recovers," Chirchir said.
The CS nonetheless said the ministry is aware of the various mitigation measures needed to address system vulnerability.
He said the Kenyan electricity grid is operating sub-optimally with limited spinning reserve, low inertia, and high proportion of intermittent generation, low hydro generation and insufficient voltage control.
KPLC board chairperson Joy-Brenda Masinde stated that the outage was due to a loss of power at the Turkana power station affecting the supply.
She said the grid is designed in such a way that when a maximum of 4 per cent of the power needs is lost, other parts of the grid that are powered pick up the slack.
With the loss exceeding the 4 per cent loss, it made the grid unable to handle it.
"Turkana being down means a lot of power suddenly is not available to the grid, so the limited power that is there has been prioritized and only some substations powered back up," she explained in a press briefing.
Lake Turkana Wind Power plant on its part dismissed reports by KPLC that it was responsible for the nationwide supply interruption that rocked the country from Friday.
The plant, in a statement, said it was forced to go offline and stop generation following an overvoltage in the national grid which caused the power plant to go off automatically to avoid extreme damage.
“Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) wishes to assert that it has not caused the current power outage. The conclusion that the grid system overvoltage caused this issue is supported by preliminary reports and analysis undertaken by the relevant independent industry stakeholders,” the statement read.
According to LTWP, at the time the plant was forced to switch off, it was producing 270MW out of the national total of 1855MW which accounts for 14.6 per cent.
“The large drop in generation output following the grid system instability resulted in a situation that national power supply was interrupted,” it said.
“Typically this interruption would be immediately compensated by other power generators in the system,” it adds.