Much of Kenya awoke on Saturday morning to find it is still without electricity after an unexplained power outage on Friday night shut down the country’s main international airport and led to a rare public apology by a government minister.
“I am really sorry for what has happened,” transport minister Kipchumba Murkomen said in a statement close to midnight local time.
“There is no excuse worth reporting and there is no reason why our airport is in darkness.”
This latest outage affecting much of the country comes just weeks before Kenya’s government hosts the first Africa Climate Summit, where energy will be key on the agenda.
Kenya gets almost all of its energy from renewable sources, but infrastructure and alleged mismanagement remain an issue in the country of more than 50 million people.
Kenya Power announced in a brief statement a “system disturbance leading to loss of bulk power supply” to parts of the country just before 10pm on Friday.
Shortly after midnight, it reported that power had been restored to the Mt Kenya region, a long-time political stronghold, and added that initial reports indicated a fault in a generation plant.
Around 3am, Kenya Power said power had been restored to the international airport in the capital, Nairobi, and other critical areas in the capital region.
Elsewhere, the power outage stretched past the 12-hour mark.
Tourism is an important part of Kenya’s economy, and stranded travelers quickly posted images on social media of the darkened airport.
The Kenya Airports Authority said a generator serving the main terminal had failed to start after the national power outage.
Meanwhile, Kenyans already coping with rising costs of living woke up to find food spoiling and some backup power options running out.
