The three days and two nights camping at Faza diesel Power station, Lamu County, by the county’s Women Representative Ruweida Mohamed and area residents finally yielded results on Thursday as electricity was restored, ending a three weeks blackout which affected more than 20,000 residents.
The residents of Faza Islands had been in darkness since 9th of June, which is nearly a month.
Despite the power restoration, the residents, however, are now demanding the immediate removal of Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) County manager Bernard Kataka for what they term as failure to deliver on his mandate.
The residents, led by Lamu Women Rep, faulted the laxity of the county manager which resulted in the three weeks blackout.
”We wonder how as a manager he could wait for all three generators to fail and leave the locals in darkness for all those days,” she said.
Ruweida said due to the blackout, the residents who depend on fishing could not preserve their fish therefore having a negative impact on their economic situation.
”First we want Kataka to go, both in Lamu East and Lamu west because he is the one causing all these problems,” said Faiza Ali, a resident.
On Monday the residents stormed the power station and engaged in a war of words with the county manager for failing to restore power.