One suspect arrested as Police recover stolen Kenya Power equipment worth Sh20m

Police in Ruiru have arrested one suspect and recovered electricity installation equipment worth about KES. 20 million stolen from Kenya Power from a private residence in Membley Estate. 

The suspect, Joseph Kihara, is believed to have been sub-contracted by Chinese Electrical Engineering Company to take the equipment to Loiyangalani Kenya Power in Turkana County.

Among the impounded at Kihara’s residence include electrical cables, electric poles, meter boxes, transformer assembling parts and aluminum conductors. A number of cables had already been dismantled in an attempt to conceal their source.

Confirming the arrest, Kiambu Police Commander Adiel Nyange said that police were still investigating the matter to establish where exactly the equipment were stolen from.

“We are also investigating to establish if this suspect has been working in collusion with Kenya Power staff,” he said.

He decried that the power company loses over Sh. 200 million equipment per year to theft.

Last year alone, Kenya Power lost Sh. 19 million to transformer thieves after 38 of the company transformers went missing mysteriously.

The arrest of a contractor comes in the wake of the rot at the power company that led to the arrest of the company bosses among them former Power MD Ben Chumo, current MD Ken Tarus, company secretary Beatrice Messo among 12 others over corruption at the utility.