Government lost Sh670 million in theft of transformers
The Ministry of Energy lost Sh670 million in two financial years, occasioned by theft of transformers in various parts of the country.
Principal Secretary Alex Wachira told the National Assembly Committee on Energy that the ministry lost Sh234 million in the financial year 2022/23 and Sh336 million in 2021/2022 due to vandalism.
Rogue individuals reportedly steal transformers alongside steel tower bracings, earth cables, among other vital items in the various substations.
Documents indicate that in the financial year 2023/24, Kenya Power and Lighting Company registered 66 vandalised transformers in Kiambu County.
In the current financial year, nine transformers have been stolen with the most affected sub-counties being Limuru, Lari, Kiambu East, Kiambaa, Juja, Thika East, Ndeiya and Kabete.
Economic sabotage
The PS regretted that the theft cases have significantly contributed to interruptions to operations and adverse effects on businesses and delivery of essential services.
As at January, 108 persons had been arrested in relation to vandalism with the court cases being in various stages.
Mr Wachira told the committee that the ministry’s infrastructure has been a target for vandals and as a result, has lost a lot of revenue in tackling the vice.
The PS however pointed out that there were no vandalism cases reported in January 2022 when the government issued a moratorium on scrap business in the country.
“There was no reported vandalism of power infrastructure for the entire period of five months. This is a clear indicator of the correlation between vandalism of energy infrastructure and scrap business,” Mr Wachira said.
He however told the committee that the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit through the Energy Police Unit and other formations of the police has helped the ministry reduce vandalism.
“To alleviate such incidents and to ensure that these economic saboteurs are held accountable for their actions, the ministry has sought the expertise of the Director of Criminal Investigations and National Security Intelligence Service officers,” Mr Wachira said.
The PS also told the committee that construction of boundary walls and installation of electric fences in all the substations in order to prevent unauthorised access of the substations.
Further, in areas where the substations are located far away from police stations, they are considering building police houses around the stations to offer security.
Technical innovations, including relocating vulnerable transformers, welding of transformers on channels, ring-fencing with high-voltage conductors and hoisting of the devices above high-voltage lines are among the measures being taken to prevent vandalism.
The ministry is also exploring support from security agencies and other innovations such as the detection system, mobile phone tracking services, fingerprint dusting and forensics to keep vandals at bay.
The committee members urged the ministry to also consider buying trackers for the transformers saying taxpayers cannot continue to lose millions and businesses suffer disruptions due to saboteurs.
“Why can’t we have trackers to these transformers because it only cost Sh10, 000 for the tracker to prevent something worth over Sh1 million which is a critical infrastructure,” said the committee chairman Vincent Musyoka.
