A Kenya Power employee was arrested on Tuesday, March 17 by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission on bribery charges.
The employee in question, Francis Githinji, was caught after former MCA Jenaro Namu lodged a complaint to the Commission that Githinji had demanded a Ksh 300,000 bribe to reconnect his electricity, which had been disconnected so that his property could be migrated from a one-way to a three-way connection.
According to a press statement released by KPLC, on March 18 2020, Namu told the authorities that Githinji had demanded money from him to reconnect the line which had been out for 4 weeks.
Githinji was arrested after receiving a Ksh 50,000 bribe. He had allegedly negotiated down with the former MCA from the original Ksh 300,000.
EACC officers, who had been trailing Githinji since March 16 finally caught him after he accepted the Ksh 50,000 which had been treated by security officials.
Githinji's arrest was one of the eight carried out yesterday. Other security operations in various parts of the country nabbed seven other individuals who were involved in illegal power connections.
Two of the suspects, Daniel Murimi and Margaret Wanjohi were arrested in the Madaraka Area of Nairobi County.
The two had allegedly been consuming electricity from an illegal connection. They were booked at the Makongeni Police Station.
Another suspect from the Logorian sub-location was arrested for putting up illegal lines. During the area operation, the Commission recovered six prepaid meters as well as 120 meters of service cable.
The last four suspects to be arrested were caught in Kisian, Kisumu county. A security team on night patrol impounded a vehicle ferrying two electric poles belonging to Kenya Power.
The suspects allegedly intended to use the poles to put up illegal lines.
The arrests come in the wake of increased surveillance by Kenya Power on their grid network.
This was intended to address the rampant cases of illegal connections, vandalism, bypassing of meters as well as fraud in the payment of bills and purchase of electricity tokens.
Kenya Power established a special response team called the Field Enforcement Unit (FEU) to address the illegal connections.
The FEU works closely with security agencies to tackle this issue and brings the suspects to book.
Since the beginning of the financial year, 630 people have been arrested in relation to the theft of electricity and fraud.
Of these, 115 people have been convicted while 110 employees were sacked for aiding in the crimes.
