Police recover vandalized Kenya Power property worth Ksh 120M

15 people have been arrested and vandalized transformers and electricity cables worth Ksh 120 million recovered.

Kenya Power officials, with the assistance of security personnel from Murang’a County, managed to apprehend the suspects who have been vandalizing its property.

Addressing the press, Murang’a County Commander Naomi Ichami said they received information from the public and raided a premise the suspects were operating from.

She said that they sent undercover plain clothes officers who arrested the suspects.

Ichami said the incomplete building was used to dismantle transformers and power line cables by removing them from the plastic cover to remain with aluminum.

“We managed to arrest 15 people who were found working in the premise, although we didn’t found the owner but the my police officers are hunting for him,” she said.

She thanked the public for sharing the information and encouraged them to keep on doing the same so as to make Murang’a County safe.

Ichami said that the power cables might have been vandalized in Murang’a and other regions and transported to the house for dismantling adding that there has been an increase in vandalism electricity equipment.

The police boss noted that the owner of the premise might be behind the increased vandalism in the county adding that they are still investigating the exact origin of the recovered material.

Weldon Ngetich, the Kenya Power chief security in charge of Mt. Kenya region, said they have suffered huge losses of transformers on LV and HT lines.

Ngetich added that the aluminum wires were removed from the plastic cover which had been cut into smaller sizes, an indication that they were not to be used for its intended purpose.

“Kenya Power reports loss of billions as a result of vandalism, about 40 per cent of national power interruptions are associated with vandalism related incidents, scrap metal dealings is the  main cause of increase in vandalism, the government needs to legislate laws to in curbing power equipment vandalism,” he said.

He noted that Kenya is the only country in East Africa that exports scrap metal thus encouraging vandalism that led to destruction of infrastructure.