A nationwide power blackout hit Kenya Sunday evening, paralyzing large parts of the country, including the main airport in the capital, Nairobi, a major transport hub connecting East Africa to Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. Sunday’s outage began around 8 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) and was the third national power supply failure within the last three months. Among the key establishments affected was the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, as well as Eldoret Airport in western Kenya, where emergency power generators failed to kick in after the power grid failed. The state-run utility, Kenya Power, blamed the blackout on a “system disturbance” which it claimed was being addressed by technicians. Kenyans on social media demanded answers from Kenya Power over the frequent power outages following Sunday’s failure, while others mocked the agency, saying it was worse than power companies in Nigeria and South Africa, where rationing or load-shedding, as it is known, is commonplace.
SOURCE: VOA
