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Kenya Power says electricity restored to parts of country

March 4, 2023

The blackout is just the latest in a country familiar with the struggle to keep the lights on.

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High voltage electricity pylons in Kenya
State-run Kenya Power distributes electricity in the countryImage: Michael Gottschalk/photothek/picture alliance

Kenya Power said it had restored electricity to some parts of the country affected by a nationwide blackout on Saturday, and was working on bringing it back to remaining areas.

"Initial reports indicate that the outage was caused by a fault that occurred on the Suswa-Loyangalani high-voltage power transmission line," the power utility said in a statement.

The country's sole electricity distributor said power was restored to Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru and the electricity had also returned to at least one part of the capital Nairobi according to reports. 

The company buys the bulk of its power from Kenya Electricity Generating Company.

Although widespread blackouts are relatively common in East Africa's biggest economy, they do not usually affect the whole country of 53 million people.

A notable exception was in January 2022, when a high-voltage transmission line connecting the capital to a hydroelectric dam broke, causing a nationwide power outage.

Later that month, three senior managers at Kenya Power were charged with sabotage and negligence.

lo/msh (Reuters, Kenya Power)