Kenya Power is now under pressure to suspend an order issued against squatters living under electricity power lines prompting them to vacate.
While appearing before the Parliament's Public Investments Committee (PIC) on Wednesday, February 16, Kenya Power Acting Managing Director Rosemary Oduor was asked by the lawmakers to suspend the set-limit which is set for end February.
The Committee's chairman Abdulswammad Nassir argued that it was wrong for the power distributor to issue vacate orders without consultations.
"You can't just wake up in the morning and decide that you are going to vacate people as if they have no representation," Abdulswammad posed.
His sentiments were echoed by Embakasi East MP Babu Owino who demanded that the order be suspended until further notice.
"I would advice you madam CEO to withdraw those eviction notices. We don't want any person to be evicted," stated the lawmaker.
In her response, Oduor explained that the order did not intend to disadvantage the Kenyans but to have them moved to safer areas.
"The intention is not to harass. The intention is to have the citizens safe not for them to stay in unsafe areas.
"In any event, any actions being taken by the KPLC and the agencies that are supporting us in terms of security. We will have to consult very firmly with the honourable members and leaders," she noted.
Towards the end of January, the squatters were given a one-month ultimatum to vacate from the property bordering the high-wattage power lines.
The directive came shortly after the country experienced outage following vandalism of the infrastructure owned by Kenya Power.
“We must work together to be a step or two ahead of these criminals (vandals and saboteurs),” directed Matiang'i at the time.
On Tuesday, February 15, two vandals were arrested after they were accused of being masterminds behind the destruction of electricity infrastructure. The two were said to be connected to engineers at the troubled monopoly firm.
