The Principal Secretary, Energy and Petroleum Alex Wachira on December 12 said there will be no power rationing in the country.
Speaking during Jamhuri Day celebrations in Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, the Energy PS noted there was enough energy for all Kenyans hence no need to ration as per reports on December 11.
“I want to tell Kenyans that we are not in power rationing mode, and like what has been reported the issue is around South Nyanza and South Rift where we have a constrained power line,” stated Wachira.
He added that the Ministry was working to ensure a lasting solution, before they embark on constructing the Narok – Bomet power line.
“We don’t want to have a national blackout, like what we had recently due to overloading.
“We have adequate power in the country, what we are lacking is the delivery system to that region, in South Nyanza and South Rift regions,” said the Energy PS.
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Additionally, he assured Kenyans that they would not experience such power blackouts again.
He noted that if the rationing was to happen, it would be in the evening to prevent overloading that would lead to blackout as has been the case.
“We will be dropping few people when the demand is high, that is between 6:30 pm and 9 pm. The rest of the day everyone will be having power,” he stated.
Power Blackout menace
Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir said that the outage that was reported on Sunday was caused by an overload in the western region.
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“When the line went down it was carrying 120MW, and suddenly there was a demand of an additional 20MW on that line,” Chirchir said.
“For a line to be carrying 149MW when it is designed for 80, it felt threatened and it dripped and cascaded down to the rest of the country,” he added.
Chirchir said some of the connectivity lines in Western region were overloaded and needed to be relieved to reduce cases of blackouts.
“We will implement it in a very structured way. We will communicate through you (media) and through our leadership to be able to understand which region we will work in. It will be a very limited power rationing and will only happen during peak hour,” he said.