Migori: Jua Kali workers in Migori County have threatened to storm Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) offices in Migori Town to protest rampant power outages that cripple their daily operations. The artisans complained that the persistent and prolonged blackouts were wreaking havoc on their Jua Kali sector by disrupting daily activities thereby sabotaging the region's economic drive.
According to Kenya News Agency, in the past week, the region has experienced intermittent power blackouts lasting averagely 7 to 9 hours every day, forcing business joints to close. Most affected business joints are the Jua Kali yards, cyber caf©s, hotels and other food-dealing places, supermarkets, the county referral hospital, and government offices within Migori County.
Ms. Phoebe Atieno, who runs a hotel near the Migori town Jua Kali yard, expressed her concerns, saying, "The situation is bad. Most of the time, we are just idle, waiting for electricity to do our work." Phoebe recounted how she is losing customers daily, apart from her food going bad due to lack of electricity to power her fridge. "These workers are my main clients. With no work, they can't eat here, and I'm left with food that goes to waste," she said. "This hotel is my only source of income to cater for my children's school fees and feeding my family."
Mr. Graham Okello, a Jua Kali worker in Migori town, shared his frustrations, stating that despite raising complaints about the bizarre power failures, the problem persists with some days seeing power disappear for over 14 hours. He accused KPLC technicians of employing temporary fixes that last only a few minutes. Okello, with over 20 years in the industry, fears the sector is on the verge of collapse due to the frequent outages. "We manufacture between 10 to 15 different machines that serve at least 15 counties. When there's no power, we can't work, we lose clients, and our technicians suffer," he said.
The Jua Kali men explained that they make losses of up to Sh300,000 a day during power outages as machines such as gold crushers depend heavily on KPLC power. "We have to pay over forty-two people who work with these machines even when they have not worked due to electricity disconnections. This makes us record huge losses daily," he lamented.
Eng. Sospeter Odiwa confirmed that the blackouts have made it difficult to honour contracts, leading to loss of trust from clients and shrinking business. "We are struggling to keep our workers busy. Customers are leaving because we cannot deliver on time," he said.
The group demands Kenya Power to install a larger transformer (a 200 kVA) to replace the small one that frequently breaks down, serving the Jua Kali yard in Migori town better. However, they were issued a quotation of Sh700,000 for such a transformer, which they cannot afford. "We will carry all our machines to the Kenya Power compounds and work from there. They cannot have power while we suffer here," warned one of the frustrated artisans.
A senior Kenya Power official in Migori, who refused to divulge his name, confirmed the issue, stating it was affecting the entire nation. "We are currently doing everything possible to rectify areas where electricity faults occur to ensure constant supply within the region and Kenya at large," he told KNA.