Engineer Joseph Njoroge at a previous function. Photo/ FILE
The electricity provider currently incurs costs running up to billions of shillings annually in the replacement of vandalised infrastructure.
“The loss to the economy, which is those customers who will not be able to undertake their economic activities like manufacturers and small businesses spread throughout the country, is quite colossal,” said Njoroge.
“We are talking about a loss of Sh5 billion to the economy as a result of vandalism!”
A man was last month jailed for 10 years without the option of a fine for stealing and destroying a transformer in Narok, but Njoroge considers this sentence lenient on account of the damages incurred due to power outages.
“We expect and we look forward to a reprimand of a life sentence because vandalism is economic sabotage and the impact is sometimes very grave,” he charged. “If it is a hospital and somebody is undergoing an operation and the equipment is vandalised, it means that life will be lost.”
The company plans to undertake underground cabling in the next five years in part to guard against vandalism by making the power system equipment harder to reach.
“In some places where we have raised them [transformers] they have still continued to vandalise them by using longer ladders.”
Underground cabling is part of Kenya Power’s strategic plan for the next five years and the company plans to raise Sh40 billion to fund the project together with the addition of substations.
