No one is to blame for nationwide blackout, Energy CS Chirchir tells parliament

Energy CS Davis Chirchir (second Left) when he appeared before the National Assembly Energy Committee. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir has absolved players in the power industry over last month's nationwide power outage that crippled businesses including thousands of people getting stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Chirchir who appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Energy on Friday, September 15, said that electric faults are not unusual occurrences in any power system grid, hence his office cannot hold anyone culpable for the blackout.

"Our country's electricity grid is operating sub-optimally with limited spinning reserve, low inertia, a high proportion of intermittent generation, and insufficient voltage control."
"When the outage occurs, their severity and system resilience influence how the system recovers," the CS stated.

The committee, chaired by Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka, also heard that the Energy docket is working on ways to mitigate the country's power system vulnerability and better ways to stabilize the power systems.

On August 26, the country plunged into darkness in what Kenya Power attributed to the loss of a system disturbance.