A section of Ruiru parents in Kiambu County are up in arms over increased theft of metallic school appliances by scrap metal dealers.
The rogue scrap metal dealers are reported to have been invading day-public institutions at night to steal metallic items such as metals that make lockers, steel doors, window grills among other items.
The dealers are leaving nothing to chance to sustain their illegal trade and are taking anything metallic. Now locals are worried that after the desks, doors and windows, the crooked merchants will turn to school gates and finally invade their homes.
Severely crooked are the thieves as they are now reported to have started using students who put certain metallic items in their bags and which they deliver to the dealers after school.
Resident Zakayo Irungu claimed that he has spotted schoolboys delivering scrap metals to the dealers countless times.
“They have been breaking school desks into small pieces and other metallic items and selling them to the dealers. They have a ready market in various parts of Ruiru constituency and it seems the dealers are motivating them to conduct criminal activities,” Irungu, a concerned parent said.
His sentiments were echoed by another resident Salome Nduta, a parent in one of the schools in the constituency, who noted that they have been forced to dig deeper in their pockets to buy new desks due to the increased theft.
“We want the relevant authorities to crack down on these rogue scrap metal dealers because they are now using innocent children to perpetrate criminal acts. Schools are incurring huge losses and the burden is passed to us parents,” Nduta said.
Ruiru Boys Secondary School Principal James Kibe confirmed that theft of metallic structures and equipment in schools have become rampant and especially within Ruiru town.
He asserted that students have been nabbed severally sneaking out scrap metals out of school noting that the vice is being fanned by the crooked scrap metal dealers.
“We have nabbed several students trying to sneak out desks for sale to scrap metal dealers and we have taken them to the police and they recorded statements. I have been urging our students to protect the school’s properties,” Kibe said.
The principal averred that the vice will become a thing of the past once a perimeter wall is erected around the institution.
