Eric Omondi Turns To Rwanda After Kenya Power Stops World Record Plans
After about 4 hours, Omondi declared that he would end the livestream and issue a statement the next day on his next course of action.
Marvin Chege 
Comedian Eric Omondi on Sunday, April 27 hinted at making use of Kigali, Rwanda to attempt the world record for the longest fundraiser for four days and raise Ksh50 million.
His plans to go live on social media for four days non-stop were interrupted by the nationwide power blackout that plunged Kenyans into darkness from Friday night, August 25.
Omondi was scheduled to begin his challenge by going live from Friday at 8:00 p.m. until Monday at 8:00 p.m., but the blackout that began at 9.45 p.m. on Friday and lasted for more than 12 hours across the country disrupted his plans.
After about 4 hours, Omondi declared that he would end the livestream and issue a statement the next day on his next course of action.
Eric Omondi arriving in Kigali, Rwanda on August 27, 2023. /INSTAGRAM.ERIC OMONDI
“There is no power in many parts of Kenya and this initiative is supposed to help ordinary Kenyans. 80% of Kenyans are in darkness right now and we need to go live for four days. We need to save our voices and our energy,” he said.
The comedian announced that the team would push the start of the challenge to Saturday, August 26, from 8:00 p.m. running until Tuesday, August 29, at 8:00 p.m.
"We are starting afresh!!! yesterday was cancelled. we are doing it from today to Tuesday now!!! 4 days nonstop!!!" he stated.
He travelled to the Rwanda capital on Sunday, noting that the decision to shift to Kigali was informed by the unpredictability and the challenges of Kenya's power system, alluding to the Friday blackout that even plunged the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi into darkness.
In an update on his Instagram stories, Omondi alluded to Rwanda as the country with the least power blackouts in the East African region, thus ensuring the success of his initiative.
"Just landed in Rwanda, Kigali. Last night I Googled which East African Country has the least Power black outages and the results said Kigali.
"I am thinking of doing the 4 days of Fundraising from here. No sabotages. Just saving lives," he stated.
For the better part of the week, Omondi had been preparing for this challenge to raise Sh50 million to help vulnerable Kenyans.
“I'm going to set a world record for the longest fundraising ever. I will go live on Friday at 8 pm and I will not go off until Monday at 8 pm.
"Ni sisi kwa sisi, tuma ile ulichonacho (It's just us, send what you can), we will change the lives of Kenyans. Tell your friend to tell another friend. I will not leave the camera, I'll eat and sleep there until we come to the aid of these people," he affirmed.
Kenya Power had previously in the aforementioned regions, including Nairobi and South Nyanza confirmed the blackout, stating that the outage was caused by a general system disturbance that affected two major lines supplying power to these areas.
The monopoly firm later revealed that after losing 270MW generation from Lake Turkana Wind Power Limited (LTWP), an imbalance in the power system was triggered and tripped all other main generation units and stations, leading to a total outage on the grid.
LTWP on its part however denied being responsible for the blackout, clarifying that it was forced to go offline and stop generation following an overvoltage situation in the national grid system which, to avoid extreme damage, caused the wind power plant to automatically switch off.
