Man to serve six years in jail for vandalising Kenya Power equipment

A Kitale court has sentenced a man to six years and 10 months in prison or to pay a fine of Sh10.2 million for vandalising and stealing Kenya Power equipment.

George Odiyo was charged with four offenses, including vandalism of energy infrastructure, stealing energy equipment, handling stolen equipment, and carrying out installation work without authority. 

Odiyo, described by prosecutors as a habitual offender with previous convictions for similar offenses, pleaded guilty to all the charges. 

He was handed a three-year jail term each or pay Sh5 million for counts of vandalism of energy infrastructure and stealing energy equipment.

For the third count, he was sentenced to five months with an option of a Sh100,000 fine for handling stolen energy equipment.

The accused was again added five months with an option of a Sh100,000 fine for carrying out electrical installations activities without authorisation.

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"We welcome the court's decision to impose stiff penalties on this individual as it sends a strong message that vandalism of critical energy infrastructure will not be tolerated. We are working closely with the relevant law enforcement agencies to weed out all illegal activities on our network. This ruling is a major boost toward our effort to curb vandalism and theft of electricity through illegal connections," said Maj. Geoffrey Kigen (Rtd.), Kenya Power’s Security Services Manager. 

The energy infrastructure has been a frequent target of vandals and criminals, resulting in widespread power outages, disruptions to essential services, and substantial financial losses being the cost of replacement for vandalized infrastructure and lost electricity sales. 

The Company urges members of the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities around energy installations to the authorities.