The National Assembly has asked Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir and Kenya Power CEO Joseph Siror to appear before the House Energy Committee on Thursday next week to explain the nationwide power outage that occurred on Friday.
The Energy Committee, chaired by Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka, wants the pair to provide a comprehensive account of the factors that contributed to the outage, which impacted various areas, including the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
“The chairman has directed that we summon the CS Energy together with the CEO KPLC on Thursday to explain the cause of the current nationwide blackout which has paralyzed the nation, including the International Airport,” a communication from the committee’s secretariat reads in part.
While the Committee noted that the pair must provide a compelling explanation for the incident, it also stated that the lack of power at JKIA, which serves as a regional hub, was embarrassing.
Kenya Power confirmed reports of a major blackout in a statement issued on Friday, blaming the outage on a “general system disturbance.”
The power distributor, on the other hand, stated that it was working to restore normalcy.
Kenya Power had successfully restored power to JKIA by Saturday morning. Kenya Power also stated in a statement that power had been restored in other critical areas of Nairobi.
“We have successfully restored power supply to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and other critical areas within the Nairobi Metropolitan,” the statement read in part.
“Our teams are working to restore electricity to all areas across the country that were affected by the outage. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience caused and we thank them for their patience.”
