Several Kigali’s residential suburbs, particularly Gikondo and Kacyiru and parts of the central business district, have been experiencing power cuts for the last two weeks.Those interviewed by The New Times lament the fluctuation during the day before what they describe as total blackout after dusk. “The power goes off for some minutes, then comes back and goes off again….which slows down our work because we don’t have a generator,” Jean D’Arc Gihozo, who owns a salon in Kacyiru complains.Jules Gasana, also a Kacyiru resident added: “I get home at around 8:00 pm from work, and find the electricity off. Even when it is back, in the wee hours of the night, it doesn’t take 30 minutes before going off again; this has happened almost every day, even damaging our electric appliances.”In an interview with The New Times, Methode Rutagungira, who is in charge of electricity and water supply in Kigali, explained that the problem had been caused by a cable that was cut in Camp Zaire, below Gikondo. The cable supplies electricity to parts of Gikondo, Kiyovu, Muhima and Kacyiru.“This is a temporary problem; some underground wires at Kanzayire were destroyed during some construction projects in the area and we have not yet identified where the breakage is,” he noted. Currently, EWSA connects electricity from other areas to the affected parts of Kigali. “Sometimes, however, these connections get too overloaded, which leads to power going on and off,’ Rutagungira clarified. He promised that the power outages would be solved in a month’s time.
