Harare — The power outage that left Kenya in the dark on Sunday, December 10, 2023 may have been the result of sabotage, according to a minister, BBC reports.

It was Kenya's third nationwide blackout in the previous four months. Numerous services were affected by the blackout, including the main airport in Nairobi, the country's capital, where two terminals were without electricity for several hours.

Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has asked the police to look into the possibility of sabotage, after coming under fire for the time it took to restore electricity to Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

"Considering the frequency of the power disruption, and taking into account the fact that JKIA is a facility of strategic national importance, we are making a formal request to the National Police Service to investigate possible acts of sabotage and cover-up," he posted on X. The airport administration explained that the backup generators servicing the two busiest JKIA terminals "failed to immediately activate".

Some Kenyans have speculated that the power outages may be a ploy to support the privatisation of Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), the country's state-run energy supplier, while others attribute the outages to KPLC's incompetence.

Meanwhile, Energy Minister Davis Chirchir said the whole power network of Kenya failed as a result of a powerline overload. In order to ease the existing strain on transmission lines and avert more disruptions, the government will construct new networks over the course of the next 20 months, Chirchir said.