Detectives from the Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau and investigators based at the Kenya Power & Lighting have recovered aluminum wires in Machakos County.
The owner of the palatial home identified as Josphat Mutuku alias mrefu was arrested and is believed to be the leader of the syndicate that targets electricity lines.
“In an operation involving officers from the Crime Research & Intelligence Bureau and investigators based at the Kenya Power & Lighting Company, a raid was conducted at a palatial home in Mutonguni, Machakos County, where five sacks of vandalised alluminum wires were recovered.
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Consequently, the owner of the house Josphat Mutuku alias mrefu, a notorious suspect believed to be the leader of an elaborate syndicate of vandals who target installations along the country’s electricity lines was arrested,” said DCI
The detectives already discovered an elaborate plan between third parties and crooked former KPLC employees who disconnect electricity and demand payment to reconnect it. Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, and Nakuru Counties are among the leading counties with such cases.
“Last year, detectives working with KPLC-based investigators unearthed an elaborate network of third party agents who were working with crooked former employees of the power distributor, to intentionally occasion blackouts in order to generate income through reconnection of power.
This was achieved through vandalism of crucial parts of transformers, before the agents masquerading as Kenya Power officials approached the affected area residents and reconnected power to their homesteads at a fee.
In the well-orchestrated transgression, the thugs would sabotage efforts by KPLC to restore power supply by removing fuses from transformers, immediately the KPLC emergency teams had left the sites. This was done in a bid to frustrate consumers further, so that they would yield to their demands,” said DCI
Such incidents saw a ban on scrap metal dealing as those behind the schemes target important materials used in the construction of roads, railways and many other national constructions.
