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Two people have been arrested in Gisagara District for allegedly vandalizing power lines and stealing lightning conductors.
The duo was arrested on Sunday, March 5, in Kamugani village, Umunini cell in Kansi sector with 13kgs of lightning rods.
Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Emmanuel Habiyaremye, the Police spokesperson for the Southern region, said that the lightning conductors were unearthed on pylons from Kibirizi power plant.
"The vandalism was reported by Kansi residents. The two suspects were unearthing and cutting lightning rods from pylons. They were arrested red-handed after collecting 13kgs of rods from pylons. They were selling them as scraps," CIP Habiyaremye said.
They were handed over to RIB at Ndora station for further investigations.
The suspects said that they were selling the conductors to dealers in scraps for Frw3,500 per kilogramme.
CIP Habiyaremye warned against destroying public infrastructure.
Article 182 of the law relating to offences and penalties in general in Rwanda, states that “any person, who maliciously demolishes or damages in any way, in whole or in part of construction, building, bridge, dams, water pipes and their routes, railway rails or any other means of communication or electric power infrastructure, wells or any other constructions, which do not belong to him/her, commits an offence.
Upon conviction, he/she is liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than three (3) years and not more than five (5) years with a fine of not less than Frw3 million and not more than Frw5 million.
