MPs Go After CS, Kenya Power Boss Over Blackout
The outage rattled many lawmakers who spent the better part of Saturday, August 26 criticising Kenya Power on social media.
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The National Assembly has summoned Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir and Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer Joseph Siror regarding the nationwide power blackout that crippled operations across the country on Friday, August 25.
The House's Committee on Energy led by Mwala Member of Parliament (MP) Vincent Musyoka wants the duo to appear before them on Thursday, August 31 at 10 am.
The committee wants Chirchir and Siror to explain in detail the circumstances that triggered the nationwide blackout that did not spare the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, East Africa's busiest airport and main hub, where passengers were left stranded for a while before power was restored.
The outage rattled many lawmakers who spent the better part of Saturday, August 26 criticising Kenya Power on social media.
Collage of Energy CS, Davis Chirchir and Kenya Power CEO, Joseph Siror. /VIRALTEAKE
“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 paralysed the nation, including the International Airport,” read a communication dispatched from the committee secretariat.
The committee further lamented that it was embarrassing for the country’s international airport to be in total darkness hence responsible authorities should provide an explanation for the incident, a scenario that could also rope in the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
The committee, which is in a retreat in Mombasa for the report writing on the high cost of electricity in the country, added that it would have summoned the two earlier but it is yet to finalise the report it is working on.
A majority of the MPs wanted the CS to face them on Monday, August 28 over the blackout but the committee is yet to craft a final report on the high cost of electricity with the draft expected to be completed today.
Nandi Senator, Samson Cherargei led lawmakers in condemning the blackout and urged Kenya Power to compensate for the losses witnessed during the massive nationwide blackout.
"The countrywide blackout was very unfortunate whilst emergencies happen, the preparedness to address the emergency should be top-notch especially on our critical national installations such as hospitals, Airports e.g. JKIA by providing standby generators which did not happen then heads MUST roll!
"The KPLC must quantify and compensate for the loss of lives and businesses lost during the massive blackout across the country," stated Cherargei on X (formerly Twitter)
Weighing in on the matter, National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi lamented that Kenyans are currently paying the highest tariffs ever for electricity consumption, including being charged for power they have not consumed.
"Frequent nationwide power outages not only expose KPLC incompetence but also compromise national security while denting economic production.
"It is a scandal which requires heads to roll but more importantly, there is a need to establish what is happening at KPLC which continues to enjoy a long monopoly but does not give value for taxpayers' money," he stated.
The monopoly firm had confirmed that the Friday, August 25 nationwide power blackout affected Nairobi, Rift Valley, Mt Kenya and Western Kenya regions, among others.
"We are glad to report that we have successfully restored power supply to Mt Kenya Region. We are working to restore normalcy in all other areas as soon as possible.
"Initial reports indicate that the power outage was caused by a fault in one of the generation plants. We thank our customers for their patience as we continue with the restoration exercise," stated Kenya Power.
It 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.
