Machakos — Kenya Power Eastern Region Manager Mutegi Mbai has decried an upsurge in vandalism of Kenya Power property in Machakos and its environs for the past two months.
Mutegi who was speaking to the media after raiding a scrap metal dealer in Athi River Devki area, said that the dealer has been dealing with vandalized Kenya Power equipment and they have arrested the Manager and taken him to Athi River Police Station.
He said vandalism has been a growing challenge in the entire country and this Financial Year so far, they have lost over 43 transformers within Machakos and Kajiado Counties alone.
"Vandalized lines cause accidents on the road and unnecessary fatalities and we need to stop this vice," said the Manager.
He said they have experienced an upsurge of transformer and fiber vandalism within Machakos town, Mwala Sub-county around Makutano, Kithimani and even Makueni County.
"For the last two months alone within Machakos and Makueni we have lost a total of 25 Km of Fiber cable which we normally use to run our network to keep up the power supply to do remote network operations and operate ICT systems within our offices," lamented Mutegi.
Mutegi appealed to the public to help in terms of vigilance and reporting any suspicious activity near their infrastructure and sharing intelligence with the police.
He warned that stealing power equipment is economic sabotage because if the network is off then the schools, hotels and hospitals lose power and so the public suffers.
"Please stay away from this vice, we have a number of ongoing cases in court under the Economic sabotage as provided for in Section 169 of the Energy Act 2019," added Mutegi.
Mutegi added that they are working closely with the National Government Administration (NGAO) team, police officers and the courts so that they can curb the spreading menace.
He said they have recovered copper wire, 134 kgs of aluminum conductors from power line, fuses from transformers, copper earthing materials and five sacks of other power accessories from the Manager dealing with stolen scrap metal in Devki Athi River.
The operation was jointly done by police officers together with Kenya Power company officials from Machakos and Nairobi Headquarters. - Kna
