Power Restored After 8-hour Outage Hits Kenya and Uganda

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Power was restored Kenya and Uganda at 1345 hours after an 8-hour outage hit the country following a fault on Kenya’s high voltage line.

“We have managed to restore power supply to most parts of the country. This includes all major cities and towns such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru, Naivasha, Kisii, Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Thika, Garissa, Nyeri and Kericho. However, the coastal cities of Malindi and Lamu remain without electricity,” Kenya Power said in a statement.

Earlier, the firm said it had lost power supply in the national grid due to a system disturbance that occurred on its transmission network at 5:49 am in the morning.

This affected Uganda too; with Uganda, Electricity Transmission Company stating that they had lost transmission across the nation.

According to Kenya Power, their engineers identified a technical fault at a section of the main high voltage transmission power line that evacuates power to Nairobi from Olkaria power generation sites in Naivasha.

“An electricity conductor came off the support insulators and clashed on the tower,” said Eng. Charles Mwaura, General Manager, Network Management.

Out team on site earlier this morning, inspecting parts of broken conductors which came off the support insulators clashing on the tower, in the middle of a coffee plantation in Cianda area, Kiambu County. #KPLC #kenyapower ^KK pic.twitter.com/JU0PG4Xxdk

— The Kenya Power & Lighting Company Plc. (@KenyaPower) May 9, 2020

The fault, which occurred near Kiambu town led to power loss on the critical power line thus overloading other power generators countrywide.