Five men were arraigned in a Nakuru law court on Wednesday accused of siphoning fuel from a transformer owned by the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) in Ngata area within Nakuru County.
Daniel Muchani, electrical superintendent at the KPLC testified before the court and said that the incident happened on November 19, 2014 when John Ndung’u with other four suspects who were present before the court vandalized the transformer and siphoned the fuel in it.
Muchani said on his arrival at the scene, only the plastic shell of the transformer was left with a little fuel spilling from it. He also realized that copper windings and metal plates which were inside the transformer were also stolen.
He added that investigation into the matter commenced immediately by security officers and on November 25, a raid was conducted by the police at Lanet area and the five accused were arrested in one of the estates as they were in a process of removing scrap metals from the transformer.
Exhibits of some of the copper wires and metal plates were presented before the court as evidence. Muchani informed the court that the transformer is estimated to be worth US dollars 500,000 and thus such act had inflicted a great loss to the company.
‘’It was a power distribution transformer and the metal plates and the wires were inside it,the transformer has a value of US dollars 500,000 and it was such a great loss to us a company’’,he said.
The prosecution however requested for adjournment of the case since one of the complainant’s witnesses was out of the country due to health reasons. Nakuru chief, Magistrate Monica Maroro said the case will be heard again on November 6th this year.