BY MWANAHABARI REPORTER
President Uhuru on Thursday, January 20, banned any trade on scrap metal in Kenya.
A furious Uhuru declared the act of vandalizing government infrastructure for scrap metal a treasonable offence.
The penal code as created by the British required a mandatory death penalty for treason, murder and armed robbery.
This means that Kenyans who will be caught in the act will be charged with treason – and will risk a date with the hangman.
“As of today, we will no longer allow, and we have put a moratorium on the export or the buying or selling of any scrap material until we have put in place proper guidelines that will ensure that material is not coming from the hard-won investments that the Kenyan people have made,” Uhuru said while speaking at the National Police College in Kiganjo during a passing out parade.
“We have seen vandalism of different sign boards and towers of our transmission lines,” said Uhuru who asked the police to arrest and press treason charges against anyone caught vandalising national infrastructure projects.
“We have also seen clear cases of sabotage as was the case in Naivasha where people intentionally unbolted some of our transmission lines and masts to create chaos and havoc.”
Uhuru’s order has rattled the jua kali sector which largely depend on raw materials from scrap metals.
The president made the announcement just days after businesses lost hundreds of millions after a near nationwide blackout swept through the country.
Reports indicated that the blackout was prompted by acts of vandalism orchestrated by scrap metal collectors who unbolted a supporting metal bars from a power mast.