At least five counties in western Kenya have been hit by a widespread power outage after a fire broke out at the Musaga Substation in Kakamega, disrupting electricity supply to homes and businesses.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

In a customer alert issued on Friday evening, August 7, Kenya Power confirmed that the outage had affected Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia, Siaya and parts of Vihiga County.

The utility company attributed the blackout to a fire incident at the substation, saying efforts were underway to restore electricity by rerouting power through alternative supply 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.

📌 What You Need to Know

The company assured affected customers that electricity would be restored progressively as engineers worked to address the incident 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," the utility added.

"We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused."

The latest outage comes just over a week after a nationwide blackout that left large parts of the country without electricity on the night of July 29.

Kenya Power later attributed the nationwide outage to a technical disturbance on the national grid, saying power had been fully restored to all affected customers by 2am the following day.

The national grid is the country's electricity transmission network, linking power generation plants with substations and distribution lines that deliver electricity to homes, businesses and industries.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke