By Brian Okoth
A major power outage in Kenya on Saturday night has attracted outrage among many people on social media.
Many parts of the country including the capital Nairobi, the coastal city of Mombasa, Western Kenya, Central Kenya, and Rift Valley, were affected by the blackout that lasted several hours.
At 8:30pm local time (17:30 GMT), the Kenya Power company, the sole provider of electricity in the East African nation, said it had "lost power supply to parts of the country", adding that it was apologising "to our customers for the inconvenience caused."
One-and-a-half hours later, the power firm gave an update on X, formerly Twitter, saying it was "glad to report that sections of Mount Kenya, Nyanza, Western Kenya, and North Rift are on (power) supply, and that restoration for the remaining parts of the country is progressing well."
Outrage
By this time, social media was full of comments by disappointed Kenyans, who accused the monopolistic firm of "incompetence" and "negligence" due to the frequent power disruptions in the country.
Kenyans also expressed their anger over "poor services" despite paying high fees for power due to taxes.
At 12:07am (21:07 GMT) on Sunday, the power company tweeted that it had "restored power supply to most parts of the country, with many sections of Central Rift, South Nyanza, and Nairobi also back up (on supply)."
As of that time, there was no power in Kenya's Coast. The company said in the press statement that it had "commenced supply restoration for the Coast region and other remaining areas."
The company would, again tweet at 3:36 am local time (00:36 GMT) on Sunday that it had "successfully restored power supply in all the areas that were affected by the partial outage."
Kenya's main airport affected
The outage also affected Kenya's largest airport, the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi.
"At approximately 8pm (17:00 GMT) today, JKIA experienced a disruption in power supply due to an outage from the national grid. The airport's backup generators were activated, with full restoration of power occurring within 8 to 20 minutes," the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) said in a statement on Saturday.
"The synchronisation of the outstanding backup power supply is scheduled to be completed in the next 30 days in readiness for instant backup support in the event of any power interruption," KAA said.
This comes after a major outage disrupted operations at the busy airport in August, leaving many travellers stranded.
Television footage showed travellers huddling around the main terminal at the JKIA in darkness, while some used mobile phone torches to light their way.
'It will not happen again'
Kenya's Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen apologised for the inconvenience, vowing it would not happen again.
The Kenya Airports Authority Managing Director at the time, Alex Gitari, was sacked over the outage.
Alinur Mohamed, a famous X user in Kenya, urged President William Ruto to take action on relevant government officials "for the countrywide blackouts that we are experiencing every month."
During past power disruptions, the Kenya Power company came under sharp criticism over "unconvincing" explanations about what caused the blackouts.
For instance, in June 2016, the power firm said a nationwide blackout had been caused by a monkey tripping a transformer at a hydropower plant, leading to the loss of more than 180 megawatts from the grid.
