Kenya Power Company on Saturday morning explained the cause of the alarming countrywide blackout that hit the nation at around 5.34 am.

In a statement, the electricity company said that the power outage which affected numerous business was due to a technical interruption at its main supply line.

“This morning at 5.34 am we experience a technical hitch that led to tripping of our main supply line- Olkaria Nairobi 220 KV line consequently leading to a power outage in most parts of the country,” the statement read in part.

Kenya Power assured Kenyans that the technical team was working to ensure the country was back to normalcy.

The power cut also affected flights at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) where trips were delayed after the airport’s generator failed to pick automatically.

“Jambo! At 5.15 am this morning we had nationwide power outage that affected our operations at JKIA. Our generators which are meant to automatically provide alternative power failed. We manually rectified the problem,” Kenya Airports tweeted.

Earlier in the year Members of Parliament approved the Energy Amendment Bill 2015 which would see the electricity company pay customers who have their power supply cut for over three hours within a day.

According to the new rule, the power company must issue an alert of at least 24 hours before power supply is disrupted.

“…a licensee shall be liable to compensate a consumer where due to power outages, poor quality, irregularity of electricity supply or negligence, the consumer incurs financial loss; suffers from physical injuries; or any other case,” the bill read in part.

Here is the statement: