For a record two times, a road signboard named after Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has been vandalized.
The signage, which has been at the centre of controversy, has drawn mixed reactions on social media with a section of Kenyan saying COTU SG does not deserve a road named after him.
About two weeks after it was pulled down, the signage made news again on Tuesday after unknown people lit car tyres and burned it.
The incident sparked massive reactions on social media as some lauded the move while others condemned it.
But as a section of Kenyans on social media celebrated the burning of the signage, many are unaware that those behind such acts risk life imprisonment if found guilty in a court of law.
According to Section 332 of the Penal Code, burning such signage is an offence that can lead one to prison for life.
“Any person who willfully and unlawfully sets fire to—any building or structure whatever, whether completed or not; or any vessel, whether completed or not; or any stack of cultivated vegetable produce, or of mineral or vegetable fuel; or a mine, or the workings, fittings or appliances of a mine, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life,” the Penal Code reads.
Also, an attempt to burn such a property is a felony and someone found guilty is liable to 14 years in jail.
“Attempts unlawfully to set fire to any such thing as is mentioned in section 332, or willfully and unlawfully sets fire to anything which is so situated that any such thing as is mentioned in that section is likely to catch fire from it, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years,” section 333 of the Penal code States.
The road formerly known as DikDik Road was renamed Francis Atwoli Road on Thursday, May 27.
