Thieves detached parts of an electricity transmission tower in the former industrial park in Gikondo, Kigali, causing a power blackout that lasted for several minutes in different parts of the country on Thursday night.

Jean-Bosco Mugiraneza, the chief executive of Rwanda Energy Group (REG), explained that the tower collapsed resulting in a power blackout. 

Mugiraneza said measures are being taken to combat such unlawful practices that damage public infrastructure.

"We are working on a Bill so that those who steal public infrastructure can get serious penalties instead of getting away with lenient sentences like those convicted of ordinary theft,” Mugiraneza said.

"We also want to establish an electronic monitoring system so that whoever wants to sabotage our infrastructure, like towers can be automatically identified. But the other important thing we want to do is to collaborate with community leaders and security organs so that we can identify where such materials are sold.”

Mugiraneza told journalists that they have reconfigured the feeder systems so that areas fed by the collapsed 110KV transmission tower connecting the Northern network (Mukungwa, Ntaruka) to Gikondo dispatch centre can be supplied as the tower is to be reconstructed within three days.

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