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{
    "id": 1220602,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1220602/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 208,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to support the second Statement by Senator for Embu County on the Standing Committee on Energy regarding the national power outage that occurred on Saturday, 4th March, 2023. It was very unfortunate. The last time there was a national outage, we were told that a monkey had stepped on one of the transformers in the country. Many hospitals were affected. You were in the Chamber yesterday when we were discussing a hospital in Mombasa where power was cut off by Kenya Power Company. I think that there should be proper reforms in Kenya Power, to ensure the reliability of electricity. We do not want to be like South Africa where there is unreliability of electricity or Nigeria where you the only noise one hears is of generators. In all those challenges, we need to be told what happened. I would have expected Kenya Power, through the Ministry of Energy, to give us a comprehensive statement on what happened. Many businesses were destroyed, and many lives might have been lost. I am told in Machakos Hospital - and Sen. Kavindu Muthama can verify this- a number of lives were lost. This is a very serious issue especially when you have small hospitals where that do not have standby generators. Therefore, somebody must be sued or taken to court for criminal negligence because deaths occurred. This was economic sabotage unless Kenya Power issues a comprehensive report and mitigating reasons as to why there was a national outage. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank and support Sen. Munyi Mundigi for bringing this Statement. I hope the Committee led by Sen. Wamatinga of Nyeri County, will come up with a serious way forward on the issue of consistency. The Kenya Power should improve. I do not know what they need to do because the moment it rains in this country; power just goes off. It behaves in the same way we take our clothes off from drying lines. We need to be told what is happening in Kenya Power. They should tell the country if they need modern equipment to ensure that when it rains, power does not go off. I think there is enough money to ensure they get modern equipment."
}