Police in Thika, Kiambu County, have recovered an assortment of vandalized Kenya Power equipment worth millions at Kimuchu village.
Among the items recovered in an impromptu raid by sleuths at a homestead within the sprawling village are transformer laminators, a pair of climbers, prepaid meters, military boots, customer interface units, transformer coils, KPLC aprons, assortment of wires, conductors, transformer bolts, a rope, aluminum coils among others.
Also impounded at the homestead were seven jerricans of transformer oil, an indication that at least seven transformers had been vandalized.
According to Thika West Sub County DCIO Jecinta Mbaika, detectives were tipped off by a member of the public about the storage of powerline materials at the nondescript homestead.
Mbaika told journalists that some of the vandalized materials had been stored inside rooms, others inside a standby TukTuk.
She stated that the criminals had already removed and moved the fresh copper windings from the vandalized transformers by the time that police raided the homestead.
During the operation, a suspect identified as Dennis Karanja, 27, was arrested and detained at Thika Police Station for interrogation.
Police revealed that they were following crucial leads to have the masterminds behind the crime arrested.
The DCIO boss urged members of the public to continue volunteering information to enable police to prevent crimes from happening.
Following increased vandalism of critical public infrastructure, including railways, road infrastructure and transmission lines, the government has been issuing a moratorium on scrap metal dealings that border on economic sabotage.
Loss and destruction of critical national infrastructure has been blamed for frequent power blackouts that often become the order of the day in Kiambu County leading to losses of millions of shillings.
Antony Kioko
