Nyeri governor, Mutahi Kahiga has called for the immediate sacking of Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary, Davis Chirchir over the frequent power blackouts.
Kahiga says that the CS’s inability to offer a conclusive response over the cause of the perpetual power outages and his lack of a solution for the blackouts was enough proof of Chirchir’s unsuitability to hold a public office.
“Such a CS should be fired very early in the morning. President William Ruto is working very hard day and night to improve the economy but we have a class of people who are busy giving excuses. If they are not able to diligently do their work, we have many capable people who can be picked from a pool of 50 million Kenyans,” said Kahiga who was speaking during the Jamhuri Day celebration at the Dedan Kimathi Stadium in Nyeri.
On Sunday, the country was plunged into its third blackout in three months. The two-hour blackout paralyzed activities in most parts of the country. During a similar blackout in November, it took over 12 hours to restore power in most parts of the country.
But the two blackouts do not compare to the magnitude of the August countrywide blackout which was termed as the worst outage and the longest electricity disruption in Kenya’s history which lasted for 24 hours for some parts of the country.
On Monday during a press briefing, Energy CS Davis Chirchir attributed the outage to an overload on the Muhoroni and Kisumu which was occasioned by a sudden demand against its normal supply. As a short-term solution, the CS stated that his Ministry would be considering rationing. Further, the CS said that the Ministry has started working on a long-term solution to avoid frequent countrywide blackouts which were a result of the growing number of customers.
“We will implement it in a very structured way, we will communicate and through our leadership, we will be able to understand which region we will work in. It will be very limited power rationing and will only happen during peak hours,” said Davis Chirchir.