Kenya’s transport minister apologized on Saturday for a widespread electricity blackout the previous night that left Nairobi’s main airport, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), in darkness.
The outage, attributed to a “system disturbance” by Kenya Power, affected many parts of the country at 9:45 PM local time on Friday.
Footage showed passengers at JKIA using mobile phone torches to navigate the dark terminal.
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) revealed that one standby generator failed to activate during the blackout.
Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen assured the public that flight control tower and runway generators remained functional, with no danger to passengers or planes.
He apologized to affected travelers and announced changes in KAA leadership.
Kenya Power restored power to the airport five hours after the incident, but widespread outages continued.
While power disruptions are common in Kenya, airport operations are rarely affected, making this incident unusual.