West Kenya had the highest number of arrested electricity vandals as the number of arrests rose by 77 per cent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2015, Kenya Power has said.
The company said 257 people have been arrested this year for crimes related to vandalism and theft of electricity. Several vandals and constructors of illegal lines have been nabbed.
Cases of vandalism reduced by 17.1 per cent during the period, Kenya Power said, improving the quality of power supply, as interruptions caused by tampering with transformers and conductors were minimal.
“There have been significant gains in the fight against power theft and vandalism. This is attributed to enhanced surveillance across our network. We will endeavour to maintain the cordial relationship with the members of the public and the security agencies to help maintain a downward trend in this aspect,” Kenya Power acting manager for security services Geoffrey Kigen said.
Managing director Ben Chumo said the adoption of technical measures such as welding, relocation and hosting of transformers above high voltage lines has contributed to reduced cases of vandalism.
The power distributor has also kicked off a study to establish if air-cooled transformers can be replaced with the oil ones which are highly targeted by vandals.
The study will be carried in partnership with engineers from the Japanese firm Toshiba, which has started manufacturing the equipment.
“The amount of power lost in the grid is about 19 per cent and the plan is to cut that to nine per cent. We are focused on bringing down system losses in our network in the medium term,” Chumo said.