Tough laws to contain scrap metal vandals in the making

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

NAIROBI, KENYA: A new Bill could bring vandalism to an end amid pleas by a number of firms that destruction of infrastructure by people scavenging for scrap metal amounts to economic crime.

The Bill seeks to block exportation of illicit scrap metal scavenged from railways, road signs, road barriers, electricity wires, transformers, and water pipes.

According to the Scrap Metal Bill 2014, there will be inspectors, who will walk into any yard to check the scrap metal and ascertain its source.

“…an Inspector may seize any scrap metal whose ownership is undetermined and shall within a period of 14 days present it before a Court and if the Court is satisfied that the owner cannot be found, declare it forfeited to the State,” notes a clause on the Bill.

The new draft law also puts a tight leash around the exports of scrap metals, because it requires the authority of the Cabinet Secretary of Finance and makes it mandatory for the Principal Secretary of Industrialisation to sign the certificate for each consignment.

Local telecommunication companies and Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) have complained that vandalism has cost them billions of shillings due to interruption of services to their customers plus the cost of repairs.

The Mulika Mwizi campaign by KPLC, for example, was aimed at involving ordinary people in catching vandals who destroy transformers for oil and metal.

Vandals have also been accused of causing road accidents; when they remove road signs and guard rails.

Under the Bill, the Scrap Metal Council will vet all dealers of scrap metals before they are issued with licenses to deal in the commodity. 

OUTRIGHT BAN

The dealers will be required to put huge signposts on their yards, declaring that the yards are business premises.

The licenses will be valid for one year and will be renewed after a thorough vetting process.

The Scrap Metal Council will comprise officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority, the ministry of Transport, and utility companies such KPLC whose transformers and power cables have been vandalised.

A senior police officer will also sit in the Council on behalf of the Inspector General of Police.

The Cabinet Secretary in charge of Industrialisation will have the power to pick the chairperson of the Council.

The CS will also appoint five other members, two picked by the Scrap Metal Dealers Association, one picked by the metal cottage industry and two picked by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

The CS will also pick a representative of the utility companies on a rotational basis.

But scrap metal dealers want an outright ban on the sale of the commodity beyond Kenya’s borders, simply because it starves local industries of raw materials.

“If we impose fines no matter how stringent and allow free exportation of scrap metal we will not be helping the industry, vandalism will continue and local industries will continue being stifled of the raw material,” said Karanja Njoroge, Chairman of the Stakeholders Forum in a statement.

The Bill sets the fine for exports at a maximum of Sh10 million or maximum jail term of five years.

There’s also another provision that imposes a maximum fine of Sh20 million and a maximum jail term of seven years for all the convicted vandals.