The government has given a 30-days ultimatum to people living on land reserved for power transmission lines across the country to clear from the wayleaves.
During a consultative meeting, the Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’I and Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma stated the clearances will be coordinated by county commissioners and National government administrators.
“We must work together to be a step or two ahead of these criminals. This is not about the Ministry of Interior or that of Energy but safety of our people. Working hand in hand will ensure we deliver secure transmission and that our people have access to safe energy,” he said.
Matiang’I said the government was keen to ensure nationwide outages blamed on sabotage and vandalism of power infrastructure including pylons do not recur.
“We must work together to be a step or two ahead of these criminals. This is not about the Ministry of Interior or that of Energy but safety of our people. Working hand in hand will ensure we deliver secure transmission and that our people have access to safe energy,” he said.
Juma also present at the meeting, said repairing the latest vandalism was costly with the Government spending at least Sh246 million in material and labour while the cost of lost business and damages is estimated to run into billions of shillings.
“The effects on the economy have been colossal. If the Naivasha challenge had not been averted, we would have seen our country plunge to darkness for 3 to 4 weeks,” added the CS.
The government has come up with a raft of measures to address the problem of vandalism following the countrywide power blackout.
The country was plunged into nationwide darkness on January 11 when four pylons tumbled down in Nairobi’s Embakasi after vandals reportedly tampered with critical parts of the installations.