Residents of Gede, Kilifi county yesterday morning held a peaceful protest against Kenya Power over laxity in restoring power after outages.
Holding twigs and singing, the residents accused Kenya Power of failing to respond to emergencies leaving them in darkness for over two weeks.
Those protesting were from Mkenge area which has over 500 households and whose transmission is through one small transformer.
When it explodes, which happens often, the residents face blackouts that at times takes over two weeks without being rectified.
Led by Sylvester Sirya alias Toza they said the problem has contributed to increased crime rates as gangs take advantage of the darkness to terrorise residents in homes and on roadsides.
Speaking near the faulty transformer, Toza said women and young girls have been attacked and some even raped by the gangs due to lack of electricity.
‘‘The Kenya Power emergency response team when called do not pick calls if we go to their offices they refer us to Kilifi or Mombasa leaving us to suffer in darkness,’’ he said.
Aisha Kadzo, a resident, said the transformer once exploded like a bomb, forcing people to flee to safety because they thought there was a terror attack.
She said businesses now close as early as seven o’clock as locals fear they could be attacked while walking home in the dark.
‘‘My child cannot breastfeed at night, my husband does not see me at night also because of the darkness,’’ she said.
Kadzo called on the Kenya Power authorities to intervene and resolve the problem by ensuring emergencies are handled in time.
Timson Mangi said they get blackouts constantly and the response is normally slow.
‘‘Kenya Power officials are liars. They don’t care whether we have been having these problems for two years,’’ he said.
Efforts to get a comment from Kenya Power over the matter proved futile as its regional boss Hicks Waswa never picked calls or responded to messages even after telling journalists to text.
This is not the first time residents and even investors in Kilifi county have protested against laxity by the electricity officials in responding to emergencies.
It is common when driving in many parts of the county to see electricity posts that have fallen and left that way for months.
In March, KPLC called a meeting with stakeholders in Malindi and were accused of failing to address problems of their clients which causes huge losses.
(edited by O. Owino)
