We are ashamed of frequent power blackouts – CS Chirchir

By Peter Ochieng

Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Energy Davis Chirchir on Monday, worryingly admitted that they are not aware of what has been causing frequent nationwide power outages this year.

On Sunday night, the country was yet again plunged into darkness for the third time in four months, affecting key installations among them hospitals and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

But if Kenyans expected a solid answer from the authorities, it was not forthcoming as the man in charge in an address to the press admitted that they don’t know the cause of the frequent blackouts.

“You are aware that yesterday we lost the grid, almost 100 percent though we remained with parts of Western Kenya and the question we are now asking is why so frequently because on August 25th this year and later sometimes on the 11th of November, we had similar breakdowns though the one for November was not as major, when we had a breakdown of some conductor at Olkaria II compared to the one for August when we lost the whole country,” stated the CS.

Chirchir said he was flying in the country from Dubai during the Sunday blackout, allowing him to experience first-hand the ‘state of darkness at JKIA.’

“I was at the airport when the belt stopped, and therefore we could not get our luggages, the generator did not take off immediately and it is a challenge that as country, we are really ashamed of and we need to address it. But we don’t know where the problem is.”

“It is something we must pay attention to as a country so that we build the kind of country we would like investors to be proud of, the kind of country we would like all of us to be proud of because when there is no power, it impacts on our health institutions and every walk of life,” he added.

He said that such a situation should be avoided at all costs, in the future.