Residents of Kakuzi in Gatanga want an administration officer probed over the disappearance of solar panels which were used at the local borehole.
The residents claimed the panels which had been stored in the chief’s office went missing and the administrator could not explain how they were taken out of his office.
Christopher Mburu the chairman of Ngaatho borehole said sometime last year, they noted the solar panels installed at the site were being vandalized and they opted to uninstall them to be kept at the chief’s office until they got a better way of securing them.
Mburu, however, said about a month later, he went to check on the panels but not a single piece was found.
He said the administrator was unable to explain where the 23 panels were as they had been left under his care.
Mburu said he was called to confirm if the solar panels are the ones which had been stolen but they turned out to be different ones.
“The solar panels which were brought back are not the ones taken from the chief’s office, and these ones are damaged rendering them useless,” Mburu stated.
“We want to know who took our solar panels and if there was a conspiracy between the chief and the culprits to have them switched,” he added.
The panels, he said were used to tap the solar energy to pump water from the borehole but for a couple of months the residents are being forced to walk for miles in search of water.
Martha Mweni, a resident, said the borehole used to give them water for domestic use but the situation is different.
She said the only well close to them has dirty water and they are being forced to use it exposing them to the risk of contracting diseases.
“For more than five months now we have not had water in our homes and we are really suffering,” she lamented.
Kakuzi MCA Stephen Muigai urged the DCI to probe the incident and bring the culprits to book.
“We want to know who took the panels and exchanged them with broken ones which cannot be used,” he remarked.
“The chief who was the custodian of these panels should come clean and tell us what transpired.”
