Tough sentences await infrastructure vandals

You will be severely punished if convicted of damaging roads, power lines, pipelines, ICT infrastructure and water network systems once the proposed laws to protect the country's critical infrastructure are passed by parliament.

"Any person convicted of any offence in this Act, where no penalty is provided shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine of not less than Sh10 million or to imprisonment for a term of not less than fifteen or to both," the draft infrastructure protection bill notes.

The bill was presented to ICT Cabinet secretary Fred Matiang'i said yesterday by the taskforce developing it.

According to the bill, critical infrastructure assets are essential to the provision of vital services which if destroyed, degraded or rendered unavailable, would impact on the social or economic wellbeing of the nation or affect Kenya’s ability to conduct national defense and security.

It proposes the formation of a unit that will have the overall mandate in the co-ordination of the planning, design, implementation and deployment of critical Infrastructure in Kenya. It shall also have the overall mandate in the supervision of the deployment and implementation of the integrated national critical infrastructure plan in Kenya.

The bill also proposes to establish the critical infrastructure protection committee that will be fully funded by the government.

"The bill establishes the critical infrastructure protection committee and provides for its powers, functions and qualification of the members of the committee."

Matiang'i said the proposed laws will be tabled in parliament before Christmas.

"The government and the private sector lose about Sh2 billion annually arising from various forms of damage and degradation to infrastructure in Kenya. We will present the bill to the Attorney General for refining before tabling it in parliament for discussion and enactment ," he said after receiving the bill.

"We have benchmarked with other countries around the world and we are certain this bill will address the many challenges experienced by stakeholders," the chairperson of the task-force Alice Kariuki said.