Kipchumba Murkomen, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Roads, says he has made a formal request to the National Police Service (NPS) to investigate 'possible acts of sabotage and coverup' after the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) went dark on Sunday evening due to a nationwide power outage.
According to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), the third blackout in three months affected vital infrastructures, including JKIA, where backup generators failed to power up.
Amid widespread concern and condemnation, CS Murkomen took to X, formerly Twitter, to announce that efforts to restore power at the international airport were underway.
"Changeover to the standby generators ensured power was immediately restored to most parts of JKIA. Regrettably, supply did not immediately resume at terminals 1A and 1E," he wrote on Sunday night.
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He also stated that he led a team to assess the situation at JKIA, including Transport Principal Secretary (PS) Mohamed Daghar, KAA Chairman Caleb Kositany, and Managing Director Henry Ogoye, among other KAA officials.
Murkomen also suggested that the frequent power disruption raises a red flag, calling for an investigation and arrest of those found responsible.
"In the meantime, the cleanup at JKIA continues." The KAA Board is under strict instructions to continue with the reform agenda, and management is to implement the report of the technical committee that I recently formed," Murkomen added.
This is the third outage; the first occurred on August 25, and the second on November 11.
During the November 11 outage, it took more than 12 hours to restore power to most of the country.
Murkomen apologized in August after Kenya Power issued a brief statement announcing a "system disturbance leading to loss of bulk power supply," after passengers were stranded at JKIA.
"I am deeply sorry for what has occurred. "There is no excuse worth reporting, and there is no reason why our airport is in darkness," he said shortly before midnight in a statement.
KAA has apologized to affected passengers, noting that the rest of the airport, including the JKIA Tower and Runway, remained fully operational.
Normalcy has been restored in the Mt Kenya region, South Nyanza, Western, Central and North Rift, North Eastern, and most parts of Nairobi, according to Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).
