Police and residents at the scene where a young man was caught red-handed allegedly vandalising a transformer in Sotik, May 20, 2025. /DCIPolice in Sotik have arrested a man they describe as a notorious suspected linked to the vandalism of Kenya Power transformers in the area.
DCI boss Mohamed Amin said in a statement that officers from Kapletundo police station apprehended the suspected after being tipped off by members of the public.
Amin said the officers caught the suspect red-handed, arrested him and locked him up at the station pending arraignment.
"Upon interrogation, he further revealed locations of two additional transformers that he and an accomplice who remains at large had previously vandalised, rendering them nonfunctional in Chepkosa and Cheptigit villages," Amin said.
The DCI urged the public to refrain from vandalising vital installations, saying such destructive behavior will be met with the full force of the law.
He said as the search for the escaped accomplice continues, anyone with information regarding his whereabouts or other crimes through #FichuaKwaDCI toll-free line at 0800 722 203.
Transformer vandalism costs Kenya Power hundreds of millions of shillings annually
The utility firm reported that in the financial year 2022-23, they lost 365 transformers, amounting to Sh328 million in replacement costs.
The average cost per vandalised transformer was approximately Sh898,630.
Between January and May 2024, Kenya Power said it lost 78 transformers valued at Sh78 million.
Between May and December 2022, the company said it lost 76 transformers worth Sh68 million.
In a bid to discourage the vandalism of electricity infrastructure and other key installations, former President Uhuru Kenyatta on January 20, 2022 said persons found culpable of vandalising critical development infrastructure would be charged with treason.
He said such vandalism acts translate to economic sabotage since the said infrastructures can bring the country’s activities to a standstill if they don’t operate optimally.
“We have seen different signboards being taken down, towers of our transmission lines and also cases of sabotage, as in the case of Naivasha where people have intentionally unbolted some of our transmission lines to create chaos and havoc,” Uhuru said.
“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 consequently imposed a ban on the exportation, buying, and selling of scrap materials to contain acts of vandalism on critical infrastructure.
“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 said.
The government lifted the ban on local scrap metal trade in May 2022, bu the ban on exports of scrap metal remains in place to date.
