By Joseph Kamau
Police in Kiambu County have recovered electricity items which are estimated to be worth Ksh11 million.
The electrical items suspected to have been vandalized from Kenya Power lines were found at a scrap metal yard owned by an individual police have identified as Patrick King’ori.
The items were recovered following a raid conducted by the detectives on Sunday night at the yard Denderu location.
According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), one suspect connected to the scrap metal yard has since been arrested.
“The suspect identified as Florence Kariuki ages 30 was arrested during the raid as the efforts to arrest the main suspect continue,” stated the DCI on Monday.
Among the recovered items from that scrap metal yard are transformer fuses, pilon bindings, transformer laminations, high extension cables and transformer shells.
Police say the prime suspect connected to the suspected vandalism of Kenya Power infrastructure and the owner of the yard has gone into hiding.
The latest recovery comes with reports from Kenya Power indicating that the company lost an estimated Ksh12 million to vandalism within the last six months.
It is also estimated that the national electric utility company that manages electric metering, licensing, billing, emergency electricity service and customer relations loses about ksh600,000 for each transformer vandalized.
Vandalism is a crime categorized as economic sabotage in Kenya.
A person who commits the offence shall on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than five million shillings, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
