Mirera residents count losses as power blackout enters second week

Residents of Mirera in Naivasha Sub county have been without electricity for a week following a transformer explosion.

The outage has significantly disrupted daily life, with many households resorting to alternative and costly means of lighting and heating.

Hannah Gachie, a poultry farmer, says she now uses candles at night and charcoal for heating to take care of her week-old broiler chicks. 

“We usually rely on electricity at night, but now we use about 9 to 10 candles each night to have enough light. For heat, I use one bucket of charcoal every two days, which is quite expensive,” she explains.

Hannah says this has made her use more money to take care of the chicks and may not recover the money even after selling them.

Another resident, Sarafina Wanjiku, highlights the broader inconveniences caused by the blackout adding that she now has to take her phone to town just to get it charged.

“It has affected me in a lot of ways—no TV, poor visibility around the compound, and charging phones is a struggle," she says. 

Sarafina has since instructed her children to ensure they have done the homework early before it's dark since she doesn't allow them to use a candle to do the homework for safety reasons.

"My children are also forced to do their homework earlier in the evening because studying by candlelight is hard and not safe,” she says.

Rahab Muthoni, another resident, notes that she has had to throw away all the food she had refrigerated pointing out the food waste she had to undergo.

“My fridge was packed with frozen cereals and vegetables. However, within days of the power outage, my fridge had already started producing a bad odour, prompting me to throw away all the food,” she laments.

Muthoni now has to prepare her legumes early which can be very frustrating when she gets home late.

Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) Naivasha Branch Distribution Area Engineer, Eng. Paul Kebenei, confirms they are aware of the situation. 

“I am aware of the transformer explosion that happened last week. A team inspected the equipment and determined that a new transformer is needed. I’ve already forwarded the request to procurement,” he says. 

Kebenei assures residents that power should be restored by next week or sooner, depending on how quickly the replacement equipment is delivered.