Schools across Mbeere North and South sub-counties in Embu County risk being plunged into strikes following widespread disruption of electricity supply blamed on the removal, vandalism and theft of transformers belonging to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company.
Institutions across the two sub-counties have been forced to rely on generators and inadequate solar units to keep operating, with students who recently returned from their half-term break cutting down on study hours as some schools are plunged into total darkness.
Mbeere South has borne the brunt of the crisis, particularly in Kiamuringa, where residents woke up a week ago to find the transformer that supplied their area vandalised, its shell dumped in a nearby bush.
Kiamuringa Secondary School and St Chrysostom Day and Boarding Primary School have since struggled to light up their premises and operate electric learning equipment. Internet connectivity that allows teachers and students to download online lessons has also been cut, with limited capacity to charge desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets.
Teachers in the affected schools fear that the disruption could trigger unrest similar to strikes recorded in learning institutions elsewhere in Embu County and the country, warning that such protests often result in damage to school property and closure of institutions.
Community elders in Mbeere South, led by Nicholas Njeru, have urged the government and Kenya Power to fast-track the installation of new transformers in areas hit by theft and vandalism to forestall unrest among students.
Njeru said Kenya Power should maintain a stock of emergency transformer units to respond promptly to damage and avoid prolonged disruptions that cause significant income losses and hurt the local economy.
He further called on the company to enhance security around transformers by relocating them to fenced plots or public institutions, noting that the vandalized unit in Kiamuringa had been installed along an insecure roadside, away from any homesteads.
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On suspicions that the transformers are being targeted by oil thieves, Kiamuringa residents questioned why Kenya Power has not explored adulterating the transformer oil, which is allegedly resold to traders frying chips and meat because it does not dry up and lasts for months.
“Why can’t Kenya Power devise a way of adulterating the oil to ensure the so-called thieves did not steal the oil, said to be sold to chips and meat traders who it is claimed prefer the oil because it does not dry up and lasts for months,” Njeru posed.
Beyond schools, traders and residents in the affected areas are recording huge losses. Businesses that rely on electricity-powered gadgets have been forced to close earlier than usual, while those that depend on online applications have been locked out due to lack of WiFi access.
Residents of Kiamuringa are also being forced to part with substantial sums of money to charge their phones, power banks and rechargeable bulbs in homesteads served by different transformers outside the affected area.
The disruption has also hit healthcare delivery in the region. Health workers in dispensary laboratories across the affected areas said reagents used for testing various ailments are at risk of going bad, since some require deep-freezing in refrigerators that have been rendered inactive by the power outages.
By Robert Nyagah
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