Three caught with cables as Telkom cries foul play

By Standard Reporter

Three dealers from a local telecommunications company have been arrested in connection with vandalism of Telkom Kenya cables, as the company steps up efforts to end the rampant vice.

Cases of cable vandalism have been on the rise in recent months, with most of them linked to acts of sabotage by competitors.

The dealers from a local communications company were caught in the act and arrested a few kilometres from Nyahururu town, as they tried to cut the main Telkom Kenya area transmission line.

Stiffer penalties

According to the Officer Commanding the Nyahururu Police Station, a Mr Ogola, the three suspects were arrested late on Thursday night following the sounding of an alarm alerting Telkom Kenya engineers of a system cut.

Speaking in Nairobi, Telkom Kenya’s Head of Corporate Communications Angela Ng’ang’a-Mumo condemned the act, and reiterated the firm’s call to the Government to consider handing down stiffer penalties on all vandals.

"This incident brings to the fore the magnitude and extent of cable vandalism and as we have said severally before, we can not rule out the case of corporate sabotage even as we leave the police to finalise their investigations," she said.

"Given the evidence and confessions received from the suspects in Nyahururu, we are once again asking the Government to come out strongly and support our bid to curb cable vandalism on all fronts," she added.

The Nyahururu incident was the third arrest of cable vandals last week and followed a similar arrest in Eldoret town, where vandalised copper and aluminum cables worth more than Sh7 million were recovered in Kapsoya Estate, during a joint operation of Telkom Kenya and the police.

Telkom Kenya continues to incur heavy losses as a result of the vandalism with Ng’ang’a-Mumo indicating that last week alone, the company lost Sh150 million.

While thanking the public for providing information leading to the arrest of the five suspected vandals in Eldoret and the trio in Nyahururu, Ms Ng’ang’a-Mumo confirmed that the firm’s adoption of community policing strategies were bearing fruit with more than a dozen arrests already made in a fortnight.

In Eldoret, she explained that scrap copper has now been nicknamed as DAWA and is retailing at between Sh160 and Sh200 in the backstreets.

"It is our hope that the arrest of the five has, however, moved to smash the racket by breaking this commercial chain," she said.

Telkom Kenya said knowledgeable people carried out the cuts, hence the suspicion that they were acts of sabotage.