Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kipchumba Murkomen has warned scrap metal dealers who vandalise critical infrastructure, such as roads and electricity installations, to source their wares.
Speaking on Saturday, April 26, the CS announced that the ministry had already deployed officers across the country to deal with those offenders and was working with the judiciary to ensure heavier penalties for culprits.
"Going forward, we will continue deploying better strategies to ensure that those people who are vandalising our roads and our critical infrastructure for scrap metal are dealt with decisively," Murkomen stated.
"Otherwise, we intend to have general cooperation with the judiciary. We don't want suspects of high crimes being given lenient bail terms and then being released to society to continue harassing us in the country."
The CS further observed that critical progress had been achieved in the ongoing crackdown, with one such criminal gang having been dismantled.
In the meantime, he revealed that the government was in the process of securing these premises and that a lot had been achieved since.
"All this critical infrastructure is being secured, and I am very happy with the work that has already been done by our regional and county security committee to completely dismantle the criminal gang that was stealing transformers in this county," he stated.
This warning comes months after the Scrap Metal Dealers Association raised concerns that a move by the government to merge 42 state corporations into 20 would lead to a rise in illegal activities.
In the January 28 press briefing, the dealers claimed that dissolving the Scrap Metal Council would be detrimental to the industry and that crucial infrastructure by the Kenya Railway Corporation and Kenya Power would be at risk.
"Give us back the scrap metal council so that we can continue doing a better job with a better environment. This industry is only growing because of the regulations the council has put in place; we don't want the illegal activities to come back," Evans Ng'ang'a, the Chairman of the Scrap Metal Dealers Association, said.
"Because of the council, we have seen 80 per cent growth in terms of numbers and compliance and an increase in government revenue, which is why we want to discuss the future of the council, not its dissolution."
The association also announced plans to present a formal memorandum to the Ministry of Trade to protest the merger and dissolution.
