Passengers were stranded at the main airport in Nairobi as flight operations were suspended amid the nationwide blackout in Kenya on Friday night.

Kenya was plunged into darkness due to a massive power outage that affected most parts of the country, including Central, Roft Valley and Western regions.

Kenya’s transport minister, Kipchumba Murkomen had publicly apologised for the major power cut in the airport.

Mr Murkomen said he was sorry for the inconvenience and frustration caused by the blackout, describing it as unacceptable.

“I’m really sorry for what has happened at the JKIA with the blackout. There’s no excuse worth reporting and there is no reason why our airport is in darkness,” he said on social media platform X.

Kenya Power attributed the outage that led to the loss of bulk power to a system disturbance.

The power cut affected homes and businesses.

The development also forced passengers and residents to ask why no functioning backup system was at the airport.

Many were also heavily critical of the energy ministry.

But on Saturday, Kenya Power announced that electricity had been restored in most parts of the country.

The country, in its latest update, said power supply had been restored to the major parts including Nairobi.

“We’re working to restore the remaining areas and we shall update once the remaining generating plants are back.

“We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused and we thank them for their patience,” the power company said in a statement.