A man who was allegedly caught red-handedly vandalising a Kenya Power Company transformer in Eastleigh estate Nairobi has been charged with violations of section 185 of the Energy Act of 2019.
Sammy Alumira has been is facing charges of willfully and intentionally removing transformer fuses causing power outage in an incident that happened on June 12, 2023.
The charges against him read that he intended to use the fuse for the purposes of illegal power supply without prior approval by the management of the Kenya Power Company.
Mr Alumira intended to connect electricity consumers to power using the fuses before he was allegedly caught by a Kenya Power surveillance staffer while on top of the facility in the process of removing the fuses.
The Kenya Power staffer was on routine patrol when he spotted Mr Alumira and his accomplice allegedly tampering with the transformer at the Biafra area and confronted him.
He ordered the accused person to show his Kenya Power Company staff card but he could not. Mr Alumira was restrained by the Kenya Power staffer but his accomplice escaped.
Mr Alumira was allegedly found with a pliers and a tester which he was allegedly using to remove the fuses.
The Kenya Power Company staffer escorted the accused person to the nearby chief’s office with the items where he was arrested. Police officers attached to Kenya Power Company were called in and took over investigations into the matter.
Mr Alumira denied the charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Mary Njagi of the Makadara Law Courts. He was released on a bond of Sh200,000 without an option of a cash bail. The case will be mentioned on July 31, 2023 before hearing starts on October 25, 2023.
The Kenya Power Company has been grappling with cases of vandalism of its infrastructure with electric cables and related metallic equipment being sold to scrap metal dealers by the vandals.
