Scrap metal smuggling could cripple Kenyan infrastructure, think tank warns

Kenya will continue to spend heavily in restoring vandalised critical infrastructure due to the government's failure to enforce a ban on scrap metals exports, an Africa-focused think tank has warned.

The Institute of Security Studies (ISS) reckons that players in the scrap metal industry have been colluding to fuel the illicit trade of exports despite a ban imposed in 2022 to safeguard essential infrastructure from vandalism.

In 2022, the Kenya Roads Board set aside approximately $40mn to replace vandalised road barriers, poles, road lights, bridges and electric wires.

Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has also suffered massive theft of infrastructure, including the removal of cross beams on the angle towers of the Kiambere-Embakasi high-voltage transmission power line causing the towers to collapse and plunging the capital Nairobi into darkness in January 2022.

Despite the ban on scrap metal exports and the enactment of the 2022 Scrap Metal Rules imposing fines of $132,000 and five years in jail or both for second-time offenders, the illicit trade continues to thrive.

In May 2023, the Kenya Revenue Authority intercepted five trucks transporting stolen scrap metal and scrap batteries to Tanzania at the Taveta border, one of the hotspots through which scrap metal is smuggled into Uganda and Tanzania.

A joint operation between the police and KPLC in the same month saw scrap metal dealers arrested for possessing property belonging to electricity or telecommunication companies and three months later, dealers were caught vandalising government vehicles at a garage in Nairobi.

“The illicit value chain that sustains the scrap metal trade starts with 'collectors' who vandalise public communication or transport infrastructure to steal metal. They sell the scrap to warehouses or yards for $0.26 per kilogramme and to other traders for $0.33 per kilogramme. The metal is then sold to larger warehouses, which collude with transporters and border officials to export the goods to neighbouring countries,” said Willis Okumu, Senior Researcher at ISS.

The think tank asserts that illegal exports continue because the licences of dealers whose trucks are intercepted at border points while exporting scrap metals are not cancelled.

Also, the lack of a regional framework against scrap metal smuggling enables the Tanzanian market for Kenyan goods. In Tanzania, dealers are fined just $4,000 for exporting scrap metal without a licence while in Kenya the fine is over $65,000.