The chairman of the Migori County Development Implementation and Coordination Committee (CDICC) Mr. Boaz Cherutich has ordered the police to move fast and arrest gangs reportedly stealing power and vandalizing electricity kits in the area.
Cherutich who is also the area County Commissioner said the gangs were sabotaging the region’s economy by deliberately disconnecting power supplies to schools, business entities and even health facilities through their illegal acts of destroying power lines and vandalizing transformers for their selfish gains.
“We cannot sit back and watch this kind of economic sabotage being perpetrated by these gangs. Police must now act swiftly to arrest or gun down the culprits if necessary to bring this thuggery to an end,” he said during the committee’s meeting in his boardroom yesterday.
The government cannot spend billions of shillings connecting wananchi to power and a then in a few minutes, some greedy people just decide to destroy all the gains made, he said warning the gangs to stop their acts or bite the state’s bullets.
Cherutich made the remarks following complaints by the Kenya power company that it was losing millions of shillings repairing lines and replacing transformers vandalized by the gangs.
Area Kenya Power manager Mr. George Nyambare informed the meeting that the company lines and transformers had become very vulnerable to gangs believed to be conspiring with former employees of the company to steal power poles and electricity conduits which they use in putting up illegal lines for unsuspecting consumers.
Nyambare said through the illegal lines, vandalism of power kits and illegal connections, the company was losing millions of shillings every day in the area alone.
The illegal acts are also leading to unnecessary power disconnections to very important institutions and business places, added the official.
He cited Oruba area in the suburbs of Migori town as a notorious spot where illegal power connections are happening with impunity.
Meanwhile Nyambare reported that the company was working on a comprehensive plan to remedy frequent power blackouts in the region.
“We are looking forward to putting up several power stations along the long line from Kisii to Isebania in order to easily know specific spots where electricity faults emerge on the long stretch of the lines for immediate correction,” he explained.
By George Agimba
