Electricity distributor, Kenya Power has welcomed the amendments to the Energy Act that spell stiffer penalties to those found vandalising, or in possession of vandalised power equipment.

The Statute Law Miscellaneous Amendment Bill 2012, signed into law by the President on July 6 2012, has enhanced penalties to a minimum fine of Ksh5 million or a jail term of not less than ten years or both for anyone convicted of vandalism.

Similar sentences will be effected to anyone convicted of illegally using power. Kenya Power Managing Director and CEO, Eng. Joseph Njoroge, said the stiff penalties will act as an effective and stronger deterrent to those engaging in the illicit business. “This will save the power infrastructure from destruction, and enable the Company to provide reliable and better quality power to customers,” he said.

“About 40 per cent of power supply interruptions experienced by our customers are associated with vandalism related incidents, which involve the complete theft of transformers and accessories, and lately the escalated siphoning of transformer oil,” Eng. Njoroge said. Previously, cases of vandalism attracted lenient sentences which saw offenders resume business literally immediately after the court sessions. Power outages during the April-May heavy rain saw Kenya Power bear the brunt of negative publicity, with the company blaming the outages on vandalism.

The company has announced that power bills for the month of July would lower attributed to lower fuel charge based on a drop in the cost of diesel generated electricity. The April-May heavy rains restored sufficient dam levels making production of hydro electricity increase by a reliable margin.