Editor's Review

The suspects claimed they were KPLC staff but were corned after they could not produce their job IDs.

Residents of Kiandai village in Ndia, Kirinyaga County, cornered three suspected vandals who were out to interfere with the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) infrastructure.

They were captured pulling down the polls that hold the power distribution lines and loading them onto a truck.

Upon being nabbed, they claimed to be attached to the utility firm only for the locals to demand their job identity cards.

The trio was in a group of five others who had arrived in Kiandai while aboard three vehicles before they started disconnecting the cables, claiming they were doing repairs.

The villagers mobilised each other as they raised alarm, arresting three with the other two finding their way out of the scene.

The vandals were loading the poles onto trucks. Photo: Courtesy.

Police officers from the Kiandai Police Station responded, taking with them the suspects.

Earlier this year, former Interior CS Fred Matiang'i listed KPLC's installations among the government's critical infrastructure in a gazette notice.

This meant that officers attached to the Critical Infrastructure Protection Unit (CIPU) would be deployed to offer full-time surveillance and protection of the utility firm's facilities and infrastructure.