Tuesday, July 26, 2022, was an important day, politically in the country. It was the day four presidential candidates were to appear before a panel of moderators for a debate.
As it turned out, only half of the cleared candidates turned up, Agano Party’s David Mwaure and Deputy President William Ruto.
The first tier of the debate – for Mwaure, went on well, but just minutes into the second debate, there was a power outage.
Interestingly, the outage only affected a section of the country – with locals in mostly Rift Valley and Western Kenya left in the dark.
This immediately attracted an uproar from Kenyans, some of who claimed Kenya Power had intentionally switched off power – apparently to deny Kenyans an opportunity to watch the debate.
“Deep state are desperate, Why switch off Electricity countrywide because of the ongoing interview,” said Kesses Member of Parliament candidate on a UDA ticket CPA Julius Ruto, who literally summarized what was on the mind of some of the Kenyans.
The power blackout however did not take long, and it was restored, allowing Kenyans to follow the debate.
But what really caused the blackout? Was it intentional or not?
While politicians and some Kenyans might have their own idea of what transpired, Kenya Power said power was lost due to system disturbance.
“At 8:12 pm this evening, we experienced a system disturbance at the Kisumu – Muhoroni high voltage transmission power line that tripped several power circuits and affected power generation from Muhoroni Gas Turbine Station and Turkwel Hydropower station,” the company said in a statement issued on Tuesday night.
The shortfall, Kenya Power said, caused power outages in parts of Western, South Nyanza, North Rift, Central Rift and Nairobi North.
“Our system engineers immediately commenced restoration works and normalized power to all areas by 9.07 pm,” Kenya Power said.
But even as the company was issuing the statement, politicians allied to the Kenya Kwanza side had made up their minds on the motive behind the power outgate.
“Joe Mucheru Key Deliverable on the 9th August is to switch off the Internet. Monica Juma key Deliverable on the 9th August is to switch off electricity. Tonight she had a perfect rehearsal,” Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria posted on his Facebook page.
