When the lights go dark: Nairobi Estlands businesses grapple with costly outages

Residents of Nairobi's Eastlands area are raising concerns over repeated power outages that are affecting their businesses.

Many restaurants, bars, fish warehouses, butcheries, schools, cyber cafes, and fresh water points have borne the brunt whenever there is power outages, and they are quite frequent.

According to residents, power outages last from a few hours to several days in some instances.

Vincent Macharia, who runs a restaurant in Kayole told Wananchi Reporting that constant power outages have affected his business.

“I use electric equipment to cook, warm and preserve food. Anytime there is a blackout, my business is affected because I cannot do anything. I am sometimes left with a lot of unsold food, most of which go bad quite easily,” says Macharia who is often forced to give out perishable foodstuffs to his staff or homeless people.

"I literally lose money whenever there is a blackout," he says.

Fish traders too have had it rough, especially because fish is quite perishable.

“The fish we receive comes from the lakes, having been transported in large cold storage facilities for hours, and so we often have to use low-consumption freezers to preserve the fish. This is impossible when electricity is unreliable,” says Joy Adhiambo from Imara Daima.

Households too have been affected, with many forced to use candles and portable solar-powered devices to light their homes.

According to Henry Kamau, a resident of Nyama Villa, three days hardly pass without the area and its surrounding experiencing blackouts.

“I am often forced to visit pubs at night to charge my phone, and I often have to spend on drinks as I charge my phone,” says Kamau, adding that it is not uncommon to find dozens of men charging their phones in bars while pretending to enjoy a drink.

Residents now want The Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), to remedy the situation and end their suffering.