Kenya Power on Sunday, March 6, 2022, recovered vandalized infrastructure worth over Ksh70 million at Kimbo in Juja, Kiambu County.
In an impromptu raid led by Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma at a homestead in the area, the lighting company impounded about 15 transformers, electricity cables, conductors and several other powerline materials.
It is believed that the powerline materials were stolen from KPLC sites in a highly organized syndicate involving technicians and engineers.
CS Juma said that they organized the raid following an upped surveillance by police in collaboration with members of the public who have been volunteering information about the theft of power material from various parts of the country.
Although the masterminds behind the economic sabotage crime have not been arrested by the time of going to press, the CS vowed that sleuths will promptly investigate their whereabouts to face the law.
“The scale of vandalism as you have seen here constitutes a huge economic loss and just a cautionary assessment is throwing us to about Sh 70 – 80 million worth of loss in this site alone,” she said.
“This explains why we needed to have a moratorium to tame the appetite for illegal destruction of strategic infrastructure which returns hinders government intension of connecting power to several Kenyans,” she added.
While terming the augmented vandalism of key government infrastructure as unacceptable, Juma urged the public to continue volunteering information to relevant authorities to help the government avert such incidences of vandalism.
Juma led the raid months after President Uhuru Kenyatta banned dealings in scrap metal due to increased cases of vandalism targeting critical national infrastructure.
In his statement, the Head of State indicated that no dealer will be allowed to engage in the business until proper guidelines are put in place to regulate the sector.
