- The dealers say they employ thousands and the ban on the business will affect them negatively
- Officials say the dealers are behind a series of vandals that have exposed many to dangers
Image: WANGECHI WANG'ONDU
Top security chiefs have been summoned to Nairobi for a meeting to discuss the veracity of vandalism in the country.
The meeting to be held Thursday in the city will bring together all County Commissioners, commanders of the Critical Infrastructure Unit and police commanders.
Those invited have been asked to come with details of vandalized property in their region, the number of scrap metal dealers and the dangers they pose.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangí is expected to address the meeting, which comes days after President Uhuru Kenyatta warned persons found culpable of vandalizing critical development infrastructure will be charged with treason.
He said such acts of vandalism translate to economic sabotage since the said infrastructures can bring the country’s activities to a standstill if they don’t operate optimally.
The president at the same time announced a national cessation of scrap metal business due to rising cases of vandalism of key infrastructure and advised the police to execute their mandate without fear or favour as the country prepares for the coming polls.
“We have seen different signboards being taken down, towers of our transmission lines coming down and we have also seen cases of sabotage, as in the case of Naivasha where people have intentionally unbolted some of our transmission lines to create chaos and havoc,” Kenyatta said.
ECONOMIC SABOTAGE
“The law is clear that these are acts of economic sabotage which falls as a treasonable act and the law is clear as to how you deal with treasonable acts and people who plunge the country into chaos for their own selfish needs.”
He revealed the government will temporarily ban the export, buying and selling of scrap materials to contain acts of vandalism on critical infrastructure.
Scrap metal dealers have protested against the ban saying it will affect them negatively.
According to police reports, parts of the destroyed power transmission lines were sold as scrap metal by the perpetrators.
“As of today we will no longer allow and we have a moratorium on the export or buying and selling of any scrap material until we have put in place proper guidelines that will ensure that the material is not coming from the hard material investments the people of Kenya have made,” he added.
Kenyatta’s sentiments came after a Kiambu Court on January 19 ordered the detention of nine senior Kenya Power employees, for a further eight days, to allow for investigations over their alleged involvement in the countrywide power outages experienced in different parts of the country last week.
It is alleged that the nine suspects’ indecisiveness to act on a tip-off highlighting the destruction and vandalism of power lines subsequently led to the nationwide blackout.
The managers are to be charged with committing terrorist acts and sabotage after police, in an affidavit, argued that the failure to act on the reports about vandalism to Kenya Power high voltage lines that led to the countrywide outage was deliberate and calculated.
Some of the vandalized rails were recovered at a yard in Gikomba, Nairobi in a police operation.
Police say most scrap metal dealers have since hidden some of their rails from their yards fearing a raid.