Kenya suffered a widespread power outage on Wednesday that affected most of the country, with electricity supply restored about six hours later, the nation’s leading power utility, Kenya Power, said.

The cause of the outage in East Africa’s largest economy, first reported at 1:28 a.m. local time (1028 GMT), has yet to be determined, Kenya Power said in a post on social media platform X.

As of 7:35 a.m. local time (0435 GMT), the company said power had been restored in the areas where it had gone off.

Wednesday’s outage was the latest in a series of recurring power outages the country has faced over the past year.

Kenya Power supplies power to more than 9.6 million customers in Kenya, according to its website.

The blackout has significantly reduced internet connectivity across the country, said Netblocks, a global observatory that monitors internet access.

The outage also affected neighbouring Tanzania, the observatory added in a post on X. 

(Reuters/NAN)