Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has dissolved the country’s electricity Board of Directors over recurrent power outages that have threatened to cripple the country’s economy.

In a statement, President Samia dissolved the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO) Board of Directors, which had Major General Paul Kisesa Simuli as its chairperson.

Major General Simuli has been redeployed to Uganda as the Tanzanian High Commissioner, with Dr Rhimo Nyasaho taking over as the new chairperson of the electricity company (TANESCO) board.

The sacking of the entire board by President Samia comes after she issued a six-month ultimatum to TANESCO to mitigate the power rationing issue in the country lest she cracks the whip.

“I know you can do it. I give you six months; the first task is to supervise the repair of all machines for the generation of electricity to address the power shortage. After six months, I don’t want to see the electricity crisis anymore,” President Samia told Eng. Gissima Nyamo-Hanga, the newly appointed Managing Director at the time.

Passengers stranded at JKIA following blackout

A month ago, passengers were stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after the facility was plunged into a blackout on Saturday, November 11, 2023.

The blackout disrupted operations at the region’s busiest airport prompting the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to take immediate action to assist travellers.

“KAA is committed to maintaining uninterrupted operations and regrets any inconvenience that this outage might have caused to passengers and stakeholders,” KAA said in a statement.

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Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen followed by assuring Kenyans that the international airport will never again suffer an outage.