Region cut off after dawn fire

The entire western region was on Monday thrown into a communication blackout following a fire that gutted Telkom Kenya’s equipment at its regional offices in Kisumu.

The universal media gateway, the nucleus for directing flow of communication was seriously destroyed in the fire that started at 6am, paralysing communication in the region.

The municipal fire brigade, who responded to the distress call, took about three hours to put out the fire, by which time the vital universal media gateway system had been affected.

Pungent fumes of burning equipment filled the air giving the fire brigade and staff of the giant telecommunications a hard time as they battled the fire.

Area equipment manager Erastus Ochiel, who briefed the media, said that the firm’s services have since gone off air.

Apart from fixed line and wireless services, Internet services were also disrupted leaving the region isolated from the rest of the country.

The cause of the fire that affected two cabinets that contain the gateway was still unknown, but Mr Ochiel said it could have been as a result of an electric fault.

Frantic efforts

Engineers at the firm were quickly deployed to the site as the management made frantic efforts to restore services.

Mr Ochiel said the services would remain off air indefinitely, though part of it was due to be restored by Monday.

“We are expecting to get back soon but certainly not today. We shall do our best to restore the parts that we can by the end of today (Monday) but other services will require some time,” he said.

Mr Ochiel said the damage was substantial and could cost the firm hundreds of millions of shillings to repair.