Thousands of residents and businesses across five counties were plunged into darkness on Friday evening after a fire broke out at the Musaga Substation in Kakamega, triggering a widespread power outage.
In a customer alert issued at 6:30pm on Friday, August 7, Kenya Power confirmed that the blackout had affected customers in Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Siaya and parts of Vihiga County.
According to the utility firm, the outage was caused by a fire at the critical electricity substation, forcing engineers to activate alternative power supply routes as they worked to restore electricity.
"We understand the disruption this is causing to homes and businesses. We are re-routing power through alternative supply lines to restore electricity to customers progressively as the incident at the substation is addressed," Kenya Power said.
The company did not immediately disclose the cause of the fire or indicate how long the restoration process would take, but assured customers that electricity would be restored in phases as emergency response teams handled the incident.
The outage disrupted evening activities across the affected counties, with homes, businesses and institutions left without electricity.
Kenya Power also apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused as efforts to stabilise the network continued.
Friday's outage occurred barely a week after a nationwide blackout that plunged large parts of Kenya into darkness on the night of July 29.
At the time, Kenya Power said the widespread disruption had been caused by a technical disturbance on the national grid, adding that electricity supply had been fully restored to all affected customers by 2.00 AM the following day.
The national grid serves as Kenya's main electricity transmission network, transporting power from generation plants to substations before it is distributed to homes, businesses and industries across the country.
Among the critical facilities supporting the network are the Suswa Substation, which integrates electricity from geothermal plants, wind farms and regional power interconnectors, and the Juja Substation, which plays a key role in supplying Nairobi and its neighbouring counties.
Unlike the July 29 blackout, which affected most parts of Nairobi, the Coast, the Mt Kenya region and the Rift Valley, Friday's outage was largely confined to western Kenya.
Counties in the North Rift and parts of western Kenya had escaped the earlier nationwide disruption but were among the hardest hit after the fire at Musaga Substation in Kakamega triggered widespread power cuts.
