Energy ministry seizes 12 tonnes of vandalized equipment worth Ksh.15.4M

The government has nabbed about 12 tonnes of vandalized energy equipment in a warehouse in Industrial Area, Nairobi.

The Ksh.15.4 million worth of vandalized material was recovered following a tip-off from the public.

“Yesterday, acting on a tip-off, the energy police unit, with the Kenya Power security, KETRACO security raided one of the go-downs in Industrial Area, acting on a tip off, and were able to arrest and confiscate 11.86 tonnes of copper and associated items,” said Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira.

This is however not the first time the energy sector has suffered a loss of such magnitude.

“Last year alone, we exported as a country, Ksh.7 billion worth of copper items from 13 licensed dealers. So the big question we are asking ourselves is, we are not a copper mining country but, we are still exporting copper worth Ksh.7 billion?” Posed PS Wachira.

Barely a month ago, the ministry conducted another raid, that resulted in the confiscation of vandalized material worth about Ksh.13.4 million.

The country loses between Ksh.2 billion to Ksh.2.5 billion every year to cases of vandalism; and it would seem that despite best efforts, nothing is changing.

In the last financial year for instance, Kenya Power reported increases of up to 46 percent to cases of transformer vandalism.

It is for this reason that the government began a crackdown in May last year.

“Before we started this crackdown in May, we used to lose an average of 1 transformer a day, and we have seen a reduction of the same, but we are not yet there,” said PS Wachira.

The government has now issued a stern warning to scrap metal dealers over the increased cases of vandalism.

“And we are telling you, the scrap metal dealers, please avoid dealing with energy infrastructure material, specifically copper and aluminium,” added the PS.

Besides compromising the quality of power supply and affecting revenue generation for Kenya Power, vandalism also exposes the public to risks such as electrocution.