Kenya Power manager Raphael Kimeu challenges prosecution
Senior Kenya Power staff Julius Karani Mwaniki (left), Raphael Ndolo Kimeu and David Kamau at Kahawa Law Courts on January 25, 2022.
A senior manager at the Kenya Power Company has moved to the High Court seeking to quash his prosecution for allegedly sabotaging electricity supply to some parts of the country.
Mr Raphael Ndolo Kimeu, who is the Acting general manager network management, wants court to quash the criminal charges levelled against him arising from the alleged incidents of vandalism of the company’s infrastructure.
He is challenging legality, validity and constitutionality of his arrest and the subsequent charging on grounds that it was violation of his freedom from discrimination.
Criminal charges
Mr Kimeu claims that the criminal charges were as a result of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s influence on the investigators and the prosecutors.
“On January 20, 2022 the President, in an apparent effort to influence the intended criminal charges, said ‘It is clear and the law is clear that these are acts of nothing less than economic sabotage which falls as a treasonable act and the law is very clear as to how you deal with individuals who commit treasonable acts..,” says Mr Kimeu.
He argues that the President’s statement, at a time when no formal criminal charges had been preferred, was an attempt to influence the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on how to discharge their independent mandates.
In the petition, Mr Kimeu is also seeking to be awarded an unspecified amount of money in damages for violation of his rights.
He was charged at a Magistrate Court in Kahawa with two criminal counts related to sabotage and negligence of duty for failing to maintain and reinforce the Dandora-Embakasi high voltage lines of Kenya Power.
The criminal case stemmed from a power blackout experienced across the country on January 11.
He was charged alongside two other officials, David Kamau (Manager Transmission, Network Department) and Julius Karani (Second Assistant Engineer, Transmission Department).
But Mr Kimeu has questioned legality and rationale of his trial saying at the time of the alleged vandalism occurred (December 9, 2021), he worked as an engineer and his job description entailed the technical aspects of power distribution and not physical security of infrastructure.
Senior management
He was not part of the senior management of the company. He assumed the current position on December 15 after the vandalism of the powerlines.
“The current job description as contained in the letter of appointment does not include physically securing infrastructure owned by the Kenya Power Company. The petitioner was summoned by officers of Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for an alleged offence of neglect to prevent a felony,” reads the petition.
The charges mutated to include terrorism and sabotage for what was said to be management failure.
He also complains that he has been singled out for prosecution from among dozens of people in the management yet he is not in charge of the physical security of powerline infrastructure.
“It is ironic that an electrical engineer is facing criminal charges for alleged failure to prevent vandalism and theft of public infrastructure whose task falls squarely in the hands of law enforcement agencies such as the DCI,” he says.
The petition is awaiting directions.