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{
    "id": 37439,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/37439/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 254,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to make the following Statement on the power outage at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as was requested by Eng. Gumbo. On Sunday 17th July, 2011, at 3.27 a.m. a power outage occurred at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport which was caused by an earth fault on one of the high voltage underground cables which is part of the JKIA Internal Power Distribution System. The outage was as a result of tripping at the KPLC sub-station that feeds the airport as a consequence of the underground fault. The same fault inhibited loading of the standby generators and we have four of them. As efforts were being made to restore the power supply, a team of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) personnel commenced deployment of the emergency temporary runway lights which was subsequently completed by 5.30 a.m. enabling the resumption of flights. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the meantime, the KAA personnel in liaison with the KPLC engineers identified and isolated the faulty section of the underground cable and power was restored by 7.30 a.m. on Sunday allowing resumption of the full operations at the airport. Regrettably, 14 flights were diverted and eight were delayed. On Monday, 18th July, the repaired cable was again tested and energized. However, at 6.40 p.m. an earth fault later occurred leading to a similar shut down as experienced the previous day. The technical team moved in, identified the fault and power was restored within 30 minutes. Again during that 30 minutes, eight flights were diverted and another eight were delayed. On Tuesday, 19th July, the engineers from the KAA and the KPLC did test and confirm the serviceability of the repaired cable and in addition they assessed and harmonized the protection settings on both the JKIA and the KPLC sub-stations. This is intended to ensure that faults are isolated nearest to the occurrence without disrupting other areas. The system has since stabilized and the engineers will continue with further tests, to fully address any arising issues. It is not currently possible to estimate the financial, economic and social investment losses that have resulted from the disruptions caused by the outage. I want to state at this point that we regret all the inconveniences that have been caused to all the travellers using the JKIA because of those two disruptions. The Member also wanted to know what has happened in the last one year and I have a log that I wish to table together with this Statement, of all the outages in the last one year, which basically summaries the outages. There have been 11 different occasions ranging from two minutes to two hours. The good news is that on all the occasions, the generators have started, loaded and supplied power to the airport during the outages. It is only these two days in the last one year that we had total failure. Mr. Speaker, Sir, going forward, the Authority is undertaking major upgrade of the JKIA power supply and distribution system to cater for the current facilities and the ongoing expansion programme. The Kenya Airports Authority has in the last few years initiated, as we all know, various projects to enhance reliability, safety and efficiency of operations at the international as well as our domestic airports in the country. I just want to highlight some of the things that have been going on. You are aware of the construction that has been going on of the new Terminal 4 or Unit 4 Building, parking garage, grade parking and associated works at the JKIA. This is ongoing and we expect it to be complete by the end of next year. We also have upgrading of facilities at the Kisumu Airport through the construction of a 3.3 kilometre runway linking taxi ways, apron and a new terminal which is substantially complete and could well be commissioned in the next month or so."
}