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.
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 cafés, hotels and other food-dealing places, supermarkets, the county referral hospital and government offices within Migori County.
“The situation is bad. Most of the time, we are just idle, waiting for electricity to do our work,” rued Ms Phoebe Atieno, who runs a hotel near the Migori town Jua Kali yard.
Phoebe recounted how she is losing customers daily, apart from her food going bad daily 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, adding; “This hotel is my only source of income to cater for my children’s school fees and feeding my family.”
“Despite raising complains about the bizarre power failures with the power man, the problem has persisted with some days power disappearing in some areas for more than 14 hours a day,” said Mr. Graham Okello, a jua kali worker in Migori town.
He accused KPLC technicians of always employing temporary power restoration by fixing fuses that last only a few minutes before power blackout reoccurs in parts of the town.
Okello, one of the Jua Kali workers with over 20 years in the industry, says 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 when such power outages occur, they make losses of up to Sh300,000 a day because machines such as gold crushers majorly depend on KPLC power to operate well.
“We have to pay over forty-two people who work with these machines even when they have not worked when electricity disconnects. This makes us record huge loses daily,” he lamented.
Eng. Sospeter Odiwa confirmed that “the blackouts have made it difficult to honour contracts between us and our clients, leading to loss of trust from our clients and shrinking business.”
“We are struggling to keep our workers busy. Customers are leaving because we cannot deliver on time,” he said, adding that the situation has affected both their daily livelihood and that of their families.
The group wants Kenya Power to install a big transformer (a 200 kVA) to replace the small one that is always breaking to serve the Jua Kali yard in Migori town better.
However, KPLC has slapped them with a quotation of Sh700,000 for such transformer to be installed for them which they say they have no ability to raise at the moment.
“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.
Contacted by phone for comment, a senior Kenya Power official at the Migori town offices who refused to divulge his name confirmed the problem saying it was not only affecting Migori town alone but the nation as a whole.
“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.
By Polycarp Ochieng and Richard Chacha
