A fire incident at the Musaga Substation in Kakamega has triggered a widespread power outage affecting thousands of electricity customers across five counties in western Kenya.
Kenya Power confirmed on Friday evening, August 7, that the disruption had affected Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Siaya and parts of Vihiga County, leaving homes, businesses and other facilities without electricity.
The utility company said the blackout was caused by a fire at the substation and that engineers were working to restore supply by rerouting electricity through alternative power lines.
" A fire incident at Musaga Substation in Kakamega has resulted in a widespread power outage affecting our customers in Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Siaya and parts of Vihiga counties," Kenya Power said in a customer alert.
The company assured affected customers that restoration efforts were ongoing and that power would be returned progressively as teams addressed the issue at the substation.
"We are re-routing power through alternative supply lines to restore electricity to customers progressively as the incident at the substation is addressed," Kenya Power said.
The utility apologised to customers for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected outage and promised updates as restoration efforts continued.
The incident comes slightly over a week after a nationwide blackout on July 29 that affected large parts of Kenya.
Kenya Power later attributed the national outage to a technical disturbance on the national grid, saying electricity supply had been fully restored to all affected customers by 2am the following day.
The national grid serves as the backbone of Kenya's electricity system, connecting power generation facilities to substations and distribution networks that supply electricity to homes, businesses and industries.
Major infrastructure supporting the grid includes the Suswa Substation, which links geothermal, wind and regional power interconnectors, and the Juja Substation, which plays a key role in distributing electricity within Nairobi and neighbouring areas.
Unlike the July 29 blackout that affected several regions including Nairobi, the Coast, Mt Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley, the latest incident is more localised, mainly impacting counties in western Kenya.
Kenya Power continues to work on stabilising supply in the affected areas as repair and recovery operations at Musaga Substation progress.