This archive report was first published on 9 July 2021.
2 Confess Stealing Parliament Electricity Transmission Lines ¶
On July 8, 2021, a Kenya Power crew apprehended two men, Kuria Mwangi and Nicholas Mungai, for stealing electricity lines that transmit power to parliament buildings in Nairobi.
According to reports, the duo had managed to cut over 20 meters of the line by the time they were caught on July 3, 2021. They were found with a pick-ax, three tongs, and a hacksaw, which they used to cut the lines, and the stolen cables were stuffed in a sack.
During their court appearance, Mwangi and Mungai confessed to the crime and asked the court to forgive them, citing poverty as the reason for their actions. They were charged with stealing the lines, which is against article 169 of the constitution on laws of electricity.
The court ordered the two to be detained until July 14, 2021, when the judgment will be delivered.
Kenya Power had launched a countrywide campaign to weed out illegal connections and curb the theft of electricity earlier this year. The exercise was jointly conducted by Kenya Power staff and security agencies, including the police and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers.
Kenya Power's Managing Director & CEO, Bernard Ngugi, had stated that illegal power connections pose a danger of electrocution not just to the beneficiary but the public at large, and that such presents a loophole for revenue loss to the Company.
