KPLC announces blackout in Coast region over fire incident

Kenya power has announced a power outage in the coastal region over a fire incident.

In a notice on Saturday, Kenya power said the outage affects Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Tanariver and Lamu counties.

"This follows a fire incident at Rabai substation in Mombasa this morning," the electricity firm said.

Kenya Power said the fire has since been contained.

"Our engineers are on site to assess the extent of the damage and restore normal electricity supply as soon as possible," it said.

A month ago, Energy CS Charles Keter and Kenya Power MD Bernard Ngugi were  summoned to appear before senators over perennial power outages countrywide.

During a heated session, lawmakers expressed outrage about the inconvenience and business hardships caused by the frequent outages.

There were calls to break up the monopoly and rid it of embedded cartels.

Kenya Breweries and East Africa Maltings want to generate electricity to backup supply by Kenya Power, joining manufacturers seeking independent energy sources.

in a notice, the two subsidiaries of East Africa Breweries Limited said they intend to set up renewable energy generators at Nairobi and Kisumu plants. 

The East African Malting plans to set up a KVA generator at its Kampala Road plant with a capacity to generate 2.2 megawatts of electricity.