Three people, including a police officer, were arrested on Saturday night after they were found vandalising high-voltage underground electricity cables near Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi.
The cables are a major power supply line serving Ragati and Nairobi West substations, which provide electricity to key areas including Upper Hill, Kenyatta National Hospital, Community, South C, Nairobi West, Madaraka, parts of South B, Industrial Area, Lang’ata Road, Ngumo Estate, Mbagathi Hospital and KEMRI.
The damage has also affected power backup systems meant to serve the Nairobi City Centre and surrounding areas in case of outages.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Thomas Mutua, Joseph Kyalo, and Dennis Mbithi Nzioki—a police officer attached to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Makadara. They were among a group of 10 men armed with crude tools who were caught tampering with the 66kV underground cables. The rest of the suspects managed to escape.
The three were taken to Capitol Hill Police Station. Kenya Power’s security team recovered five meters of the already vandalised power cable and seized tools found at the scene, including four hoes, two spades, and two hacksaws.
Kenya Power Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Joseph Siror, praised the security team for their swift action and warned that the utility company will continue to strengthen its surveillance operations to stop illegal activities targeting the electricity network.
“Vandalism of power infrastructure is a serious threat to public safety and disrupts electricity supply to homes and businesses,” said Dr. Siror.
“It is unfortunate that while we work to provide reliable and safe electricity to our customers, a few individuals are undermining these efforts through criminal acts. We will continue working with the public and law enforcement to bring the culprits to justice.”
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