Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki and his Nyeri counterpart Mutahi have called for the sacking of Energy Cabinet Secretary (CS) Davis Chirchir for the periodic national blackouts in recent times.
Speaking during the Jamhuri Day celebrations in their various counties, the governors asked President William Ruto to act against CS Chirchir for the constant national power outages.
Kahiga said some CSs are getting lazy in performing their roles while President is sacrificing, working tirelessly to build the economy.
“A few days ago, I travelled back to the country and there was a blackout, such a CS should be sacked immediately,” he said.
However, Kahiga said some CSs take things lightly, he accused Chirchir of allowing constant blackouts and giving unnecessary explanations about generators.
“I want to say this, if they cannot deliver, there are over 50 million people in Kenya. Nobody should try to blackmail our president, if someone is not working, he should be sent out of the government,” stated Kahiga.
In agreement, Governor Njuki lamented over the recurrent power outages and called on President Ruto to act.
“I heard them say that we will have power rationing, how can we have rationing of electricity when dams like Masiga are full of water. It is ironic “he said.
Also, the Governor mentioned that Kenya is performing poorly as compared to South Africa which politicians talk ill about.
“The problems with us Kenyans is that we don’t like saying the truth so that we can look good,” said Njuki.
Chirchir Explanations
CS Chirchir explained that blackouts being witnessed in the country is a result of network overload.
According to the CS, the country had not invested in transmission networks for about 5 years and yet it continued to build the industry.
Therefore, he noted that the demand for power increased causing constraints on the transmission networks available.
Also Read: CS Chirchir Issues Way Forward on Nationwide Blackout
Going Forward
Chirchir stated that the government had put in place measures to solve the problem including building an alternative transmission line in Western Kenya to reduce the over dependence.
“We will work on removing some of the system constraints like the Western part of Kenya is serviced by Ol Karia and the transmission like are currently constrained.
“We are building an alternative line to support western part of Kenya from Ol Karia through Narok all the way to Awendo to support the transmission that goes through Lesos and improve the capacity of carrying more megawatts to the Western part of the country,” he stated.
Additionally, he noted that the government had already received funding from South Korea and the Africa Development Bank to begin the construction.
The CS was responding to concerns raised after the massive power outage experienced on Sunday, December 10.
KPLC Blackouts
The country was plunged into total darkness for hours for the third time in less than four months on December 10.
The Kenya Power and Lighting Company – KPLC took hours to restore electricity to different regions.
By 2am, Monday, December 11, KPLC said in a statement that several regions were already back to the national grid.
Also Read: KPLC Update on Countrywide Power Blackout
On November 11, a power outage affected most parts of the country from around 8:30p.m.
KPLC apologized to the customers and explained that the technical teams were working to restore the power supply.
In a statement, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) noted that the outage affected Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) even though it did not last for long.
August Power Outage
On August 25, the country experienced a power blackout that lasted for hours, affecting JKIA as well.
According to Kenya Power, the outage in various parts of the country was because of a system disturbance.
Afterwards, CS Murkomen made changes in management of JKIA and other airports in the country.
In addition, Murkomen apologized to Kenyans and visitors and promised that the same would not happen again under his watch.
Consequently, he ordered the commissioning of two generators procured two years ago to prevent future blackouts at JKIA.
