Kenyans spend longer in the dark as power reliability drops

Kenya Power electricians work on electricity lines. [Courtesy]

Kenya Power customers are spending longer hours without electricity when outages occur, with the average interruption lasting more than three hours in the year that ended in June.

Data from Kenya Power and the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) show that the average outage lasted three hours and 14 minutes, up from two hours and 34 minutes a year earlier — an increase of about 26 per cent.

The figures point to a decline in power reliability, with outages becoming both longer and more frequent.

The situation was particularly difficult in May, when customers waited an average of about five and a half hours to have their electricity restored after supply interruptions.

“Monthly averages peaked in May 2026 at five hours and 29 minutes per interruption, whereas September recorded the shortest average duration at two hours and seven minutes,” said Epra in a new statistical report for the year to June 2026, which also noted that the average outage of about three hours and 14 minutes was more than twice Epra’s target of 1 hour 21 minutes.

“Overall, the index’s annual figure was worse than the regulatory benchmark of one hour and 21 minutes, mandated by the Authority for the 2025/26 tariff control period, by one hour and 52 minutes.”

The index, known as the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), tracks the average length of time customers remain without electricity whenever there is an outage.

Kenya Power had separately explained that the deterioration in the reliability indices was partly due to improved data capture, which it said had resulted in more power interruptions being recorded than in previous years.

EPRA also noted that the year to June 2026 registered the highest average interruption length per incident over a five-year timeframe, maintaining a steady increase since 2022/23, when the outage duration hit a five-year low of two hours and 15 minutes per outage.

“This upward trajectory conflicts with regulatory goals. The national power tariff prescribed a gradual decrease in the index toward regional benchmarks by June 2026, establishing EPRA’s target at one hour 36 minutes per outage for the review period,” said EPRA, noting that Kenya Power had slipped up after meeting the set targets in earlier years.

“While the utility complied with the regulator’s target between 2021/22 and 2023/24, it missed the requirement in each of the last two years.”

The deterioration was also reflected in the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), which measures the total amount of time, on average, that a customer is without electricity over a given period. The index therefore captures the cumulative burden of power outages on consumers, taking into account the total duration of interruptions experienced during the year.

Over the year to June 2026, customers were without electricity for an average cumulative 13.16 hours.

This was an increase of 3.74 hours compared with the 9.24 hours recorded in the year ended June 2025. This, according to Epra, exceeded the regulator’s target of 1.5 hours.

“Over the five years, SAIDI remained consistently above both the Epra threshold and the regional benchmark, indicating that the system continued to record higher interruption durations than the established performance levels,” said Epra.

Power supply also became more prone to interruptions, as seen in the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), which measures how often, on average, a customer experiences a power outage over a given period.

During the period under review, customers experienced an average of 3.91 power interruptions per month, an increase from 3.67 interruptions per month recorded in the previous year. This was 2.81 interruptions above the EPRA target and regional benchmark of 1.10 interruptions per month.

Despite Kenyans spending more time in the dark due to worsening reliability in power supply, Kenya Power said it had upped investments in transmission and distribution. The company said, “Capital expenditure during the year amounted to Sh28.01 billion, reflecting continued investment in transmission and distribution infrastructure, substations, customer connections, digital technologies and system modernisation to support growing electricity demand and improve quality of supply”.

The investments had also resulted in a significant reduction in losses incurred during transmission and distribution, which dropped from 21.21 per cent to 18.58 per cent.