Energy and Petroleum CS Davis Chirchir has offered an explanation on why the country has been experiencing nationwide blackouts in the recent days.
The first incident was witnessed in August 25, another in November 11 and the latest being on Sunday December 10.
In a press conference on Monday, Chirchir however said that the country has been plunged into darkness frequently because the network has not been under maintenance in a long time.
“We are aware that there was a power blackout yesterday, and the question we are now asking is, why so frequently? We know where the problem is and we are addressing those challenges. It is bound to happen again but we will look at serious maintenance. The least of it is lack of serious investment in the network for a long time,” he said.
According to him, there was a power outage on Sunday because of an overload on the Kisumu-Muhoroni transmission line.
“.There was sudden demand and the line is dimensioned to carry 80Mw. When the line went down it was carrying 120Mw and suddenly there was a demand for an additional 20Mw on that line,” he explained.
He however noted that the matter will be addressed by construction of an additional line in the Western Kenya.
“We are building an alternative line to support the west of Kenya, through Narok- Bomet- Awendo to remove the constraint. We are ready to start and we are getting funding from South Korea and the Africa Development Bank,” the CS said in a press conference.
“We know the problem. We learnt it was an overload and we felt good because we can fix that problem very quickly unlike when it is a hit,” he added.
