Kenya: President Clamps Down on Infrastructure Vandalism

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta is getting tough on criminals who are destroying his nation’s infrastructure, and is implementing measures to curb these unlawful acts.

Per local news reports last Thursday, 20 January, the president announced that he will order the police to arrest vandals that damage infrastructure and charge them with treason. To further hammer home his point, he will also implement legislation to ban any trading in scrap metal.

Kenyatta was speaking to 300 police graduates at the National Police College Main Campus in Kiganjo, a small town situated approximately 100 kilometres north of Nairobi, when he shared his ire.

He said sternly: “These acts are nothing less than economic sabotage which fall under treasonable acts and the law is clear as to how we deal with treasonable acts.”

“As of today, we will no longer allow it, and we have put a moratorium on the export or buying and selling of any scrap material until we have put in place proper guidelines that will ensure that material is not coming from the hard investments that the Kenyan people have made,” Kenyatta added.

In November last year, police apprehended two suspects who had stolen critical train track components near a station in Mtito Andei in southern Kenya.

Image Credit: Source