Marimanti court signpost. The court granted a Kenya Power employee and one other suspect Sh2 million bond each with no option of cash bail over vandalism of conductors at Tunyai area, Tharaka Nithi County. [Photo/nation.co.ke]

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Marimanti court has granted a Kenya Power employee and one other suspect Sh2 million bond each with no option of cash bail over vandalism of conductors at Tunyai area, Tharaka Nithi County.

Francis Makori Okioma based at Kenya Power’s Marimanti Depot as a meter reader and Kenneth Kimanthi Njeru was arrested on Sunday for vandalising aluminium conductors from a customer’s home and constructing an illegal line at another person’s premises. 

The two appeared before a senior resident magistrate on Tuesday and were charged with the offenses of vandalism and unauthorised laying of a conductor. 

The case will be mentioned on 12th February and hearing is scheduled to take place on 14th March 2018. 

The arrests come less than a month after four suspects, among them, an armed police officer attached to Kitengela Police station were arraigned in Mavoko Law Courts for vandalising a high transmission (HT) cable at Athi River. 

The case is ongoing. On Monday, an Eldoret court fined Alfred Ouma Oduor Sh5 million for vandalising conductor wires following his arrest in November last year. 

Elsewhere, a prepaid meter and 1,200 meters of aluminium conductors were recovered in Machakos and Nakuru following ongoing operations to track down illegal lines. 

As a result of countrywide operations and heightened surveillance on the network to weed out vandalism, illegal connections and other vices undermining the quality of power supply, the Company recorded a 40 percent reduction in the number of vandalised transformers in the last financial year.