Man in court for vandalising street lights
A man allegedly caught red-handed vandalizing street lights along Wangari Mathai road in Parklands, Nairobi made a U – turn and denied theft charges he had pleaded guilty to.
Rashid Abdalla Owuor had on Thursday admitted charges of stealing two solar street lights batteries belonging to Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) valued at Sh92, 000 on August 3 jointly with another who escaped police during their arrest.
But he changed mind and denied the charges just before the facts of the case were read out to him on Friday.
Owuor was arrested at the scene where he was allegedly found vandalizing the street lights but his accomplice fled the cops.
Kenha officials were on patrol in the area when they found two people including Owuor and his accomplice stealing the batteries from the street lights near Premier Academy.
They alerted police officers who swiftly proceeded to the scene and arrested Owuor.
The police recovered the batteries and tools used to extract them including a hacksaw, a knife, a spade, an iron rod among others and a sack containing the stolen batteries and some of the tools.
Senior principal magistrate Derrick Kutto of Kibera law courts released Owuor on a bond of Sh200,000 and an alternative cash bail of Sh100, 000.
The case will be mentioned on August 23 for pretrial and fixing of hearing dates.