Given the frequency of power outages in Kenya and the fact that Nairobi's airport is a facility of national importance, Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has asked police to investigate the Sunday's outages for sabotage.
"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 wrote on X (former Twitter).
The minister explained that backup generators provided power to most of the airport during the blackout, but two terminals were without electricity.
By Monday afternoon, power had been restored to most of the country except parts of Nairobi and the coast.
For his part, Energy Minister Davis Chirchir attributed the blackout to an overload on the Kisumu- Muhorono transmission line, which then caused a blackout throughout the country's power grid.
Chirchir noted that the new substation and 90-kilometer line will relieve the problematic line, and will be funded by the African Development Bank and Japan. The construction will take 20 months, the minister said.
The massive blackout was the fourth to hit the East African nation this year, following power outages in November, August and March.
The longest blackout was on August 25, when the country was without power for more than 20 hours. Kenya's government then asked neighboring Uganda to export electricity to help solve the country's energy crisis.