President Kenyatta bans scrap metal dealings due to increased vandalism

[John Ashworth]

President Kenyatta bans scrap metal dealings due to increased vandalism

President Uhuru Kenyatta has banned any exports or dealings in scrap metal until proper guidelines are put in place to regulate the sector... President Kenyatta stated that tough action will be taken against anyone found culpable of vandalism... following the recent countrywide power outage in the country that has been linked to negligence and sabotage... So far, investigations have shown that the basement of the Angle towers of Kenya Power’s High voltage power lines in Embakasi had been vandalized and the cross beams removed and unbolted, leading to the collapse that caused a major outage... Two months ago, police arrested two people behind the vandalism of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line. The two were accused of vandalising the SGR line in Mtito Andei, leading to a two-hour delay of a passenger train...

The timing of this announcement is probably due more to a number of recent massive country-wide power outages due to vandalism of pylons in the high voltage distribution grid, but as the article says, vandalism of the new standard gauge railway is also an issue.