Several parts of Kenya were still without power on Saturday, following blackouts that also plunged Nairobi International Airport into darkness for several hours.
The airport plunged into darkness
At Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta Airport, one of Africa’s busiest hubs, the Kenya Airports Authority said a generator serving the main terminals failed to restart after the outage.
The airport was plunged into darkness for around two hours on Friday evening and services including immigration and baggage checks were disrupted. The power would have returned around 3 a.m. (Kenya time)
The runway and the control tower remained lit
“For the avoidance of doubt, the incident, while regrettable, presented no danger to our flights and inbound and outbound passengers, as the emergency generator illuminating the runway and control tower was seamlessly deployed when the breakdown occurred and at no time did we have an iota of darkness on the track and on the tower”
Several parts of the country affected by this power outage
The Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) reported that there had been “a system disruption resulting in loss of electricity supply in various parts of the country” from Friday evening.
Besides the capital, with a population of five million, the main cities affected in this East African country were Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret.
By midday on Saturday, KPLC said power had been restored to “most” areas, but several areas in the capital and Mombasa, the second-largest city, would still be without power.
