Kenya Power: Load Shedding, Outages, and the Fight for Reliable Electricity in Kenya

When your lights go out and your phone dies, you’re not just inconvenienced—you’re caught in the Kenya Power, the state-owned utility responsible for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity across Kenya. Also known as KPLC, it’s the lifeline for homes, hospitals, and small businesses, yet its reliability is anything but guaranteed. For millions of Kenyans, Kenya Power isn’t just a company—it’s a daily gamble. Will the power stay on long enough to cook dinner? Will the meter run out before the next bill arrives? Will the next load-shedding schedule hit during your child’s online class?

The load shedding, scheduled power cuts implemented to prevent total grid collapse has become a brutal rhythm of life. It’s not random. It’s calculated. And it’s often mismanaged. The electricity crisis, a systemic failure of infrastructure investment, maintenance, and debt management isn’t new—but it’s worsening. In 2024, Kenya Power recorded over 2,100 hours of unplanned outages nationwide. That’s nearly 90 full days without power. Meanwhile, bills keep arriving, sometimes inflated by faulty meters or phantom consumption. The KPLC, the public-facing brand of Kenya Power has been accused of poor customer service, opaque billing, and slow response times. People are tired of paying for a service they rarely get.

It’s not all doom. The government and private investors are pushing new solar projects, and some neighborhoods now rely on off-grid solutions. But for the average family in Nairobi, Mombasa, or Kisumu, the real story is still the same: a flickering bulb, a frustrated call to the hotline, and a waiting game for the next scheduled outage. What you’ll find in this collection are real stories from people on the ground—business owners who lost inventory, students who missed exams, nurses who worked by flashlight. These aren’t abstract policy debates. They’re lived experiences shaped by a system that’s failing too many.