NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 14 – Five senior officials from Kenya Power are under investigation for sabotaging electricity supply that affected the whole country earlier this week.
DCI Director George Kinoti says those under investigation are senior officials charged with the responsibility of securing high voltage lines and transmission from the national grid.
So far, investigations have shown that the basement of the Angle towers of Kenya Power’s High voltage power lines in Embakasi had been vandalized and the cross beams removed/unbolted, leading to the collapse that caused a major outage.
The officials who include the Chief Engineer, Network Management officials and Chief Security Officer were picked up for interrogation and freed last night and will be going back to DCI this morning.
“Preliminary investigations and Interrogations of Kenya power personnel at the scene revealed that the basement of the Angle Towers of Kenya Power High voltage power lines had been vandalized and the cross beams removed/unbolted,” Kinoti said.
Investigations have shown that since the Angle Towers had been vandalised and bracings (tower members) they could not support the weight of the conductors which are very heavy and the tower itself.
“The team also established that the Angle towers caved in, the other towers failed to sustain the weight and also caved in,” he said citing a preliminary report from his detectives.
Power went off countrywide for the better part of Tuesday when four towers collapsed in Embakasi but it was later restored several hours later.
