A syndicate has been broken up for allegedly siphoning off Sh5 million water a month from the Mzima pipeline.
The illegal connections were discovered at Voi town on Thursday by officials from the Coast Water Services Board.
CWSB chairman Granton Samboja said the group was comprising a Somali rancher, a former Cabinet minister, a ranch in Voi, a hotelier and a provincial administrator.
He said the board carried out a joint operation with Taita Taveta Water and Sewerage Company (Tavevo).
“As you have witnessed, there are several illegal connections supplying private farms,” Samboja told journalists.
“Others are used for carwash purposes on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway. All the water is not metered.”
The chairman said the board wants to ensure people pay for the water they use.
“The powerful individuals have sent me a text message threatening my life. I will not be cowed,” Sambojia said.
The chairman said out of the 150,000 cubic metres of water supplied in Taita Taveta county, only 75,000 cubic meters can be accounted for.
Samboja said Tavevo was unable to pay its own water bills to CWSB because most water they are supplied with disappears into private individuals’ farms not on the board’s records.
The chairman said investigations will be carried out to establish whether employees from the CWSB and Tavevo were involved.
“We suspect some officials colluded with the rich to do the illegal water connections,” he said.
