Three suspects were arrested on Thursday 10 th March 2022 and vandalized equipment worth millions was recovered. DCI detectives raided a scrap metal yard in Juja’s Matangi area, where Several vandalized KPLC transformers, rolls of aluminum conductors, and assorted materials belonging to the Kenya Power & Lighting company were recovered. A further search in nearby homesteads led to the recovery of more vandalized apparatus, where a container full of steel bracings obtained from critical electricity transmission towers were recovered. Following the raid, Johana Thuku and Stephen Githitu were arrested and arraigned at a Thika court for the offense of vandalism.
Additional counts of handling stolen energy equipment were also slapped on the thugs. A third suspect, Patrick King’ori, was arrested later on the eve of Thursday as he tried to escape DCI’s dragnet. Detectives are burning the midnight candle to net more of their accomplices who are still at large.
The arrest of the three suspects comes barely a month after President Uhuru Kenyatta, announced a moratorium in scrap metal trade due to runaway vandalism, targeting critical national infrastructure. The level of greed by unscrupulous traders out to make illegal profits by vandalizing critical installations has hit alarming rates, threatening the country’s economy.
On January 11, 2022, Kenyan homes and businesses were plunged into darkness after a high voltage transmission line connecting the capital collapsed, in what was suspected to be high-level vandalism.
Last November, 20221, operations along the busy Mombasa-Nairobi Standard gauge railway (SGR) had to be stopped for two hours after gauge blocks were vandalized from the line. So far, five suspects have been arrested and presented before the court of Law.
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