Parliament wants IG summoned over KPLC-City County row

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula wants the Inspector General of Police summoned over the impasse between Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) and Nairobi County that resulted in the garbage dumping incident.

On Wednesday, Speaker Wetangula called out IG Douglas Kanja for not taking action against Nairobi City County on what he termed as criminal behavior of dumping the waste.

“We are going to summon the Inspector General to appear before the committee next week,” Speaker Wetangula said.

“There are clear criminal offenses committed not just under the nuisance law, but also under environmental law, the Health Act, the Penal Code, and several other Acts of Parliament. In fact, you can identify up to ten criminal violations arising from that single act,” he added.

Members of Parliament led by Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa (Kikuyu MP) and Minority Leader Junet Mohamed (Suna East MP) slammed the unfortunate events and called out those who instructed the trashing of the garbage.

MP Junet called out out the IG and those responsible to be held accountable for their actions in the standoff.

“What we have seen around Stima Plaza is nothing short of criminal acts. As I watched the news last night, I kept asking myself where are the police who should be ensuring law and order in this country. The Inspector General of Police must take decisive action, starting with the drivers who operated those trucks. It should be easy for the IG, through the DCI, to extract information on who these drivers were,” he remarked.

“From the drivers to those who instructed them even if it leads all the way to the governor it should not matter. We cannot entertain criminality under the guise of recovering debts from public institutions. What happened today has real consequences. Our constituents are waiting for bursaries; others are hoping for Grade 9 classrooms to be built through the NGCDF. Members of Parliament are here advocating for NGCDF funds what if everyone decided to take matters into their own hands like this? Would we still have a country?” he posed.

Addressing the media outside City Hall after meeting with Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja dismissed the incident KPLC headquarters at Stima Plaza in Ngara as an unfortunate incident that is being dealt with internally.

Following this incident that elicited a mixture of reactions online and offline, the county government of Nairobi has come out to declare a truce in a dispute between itself and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company.

Additional Reporting by Yusuf Farah