At least 20 individuals have recorded statements with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over a controversial Sh12 billion fuel consignment, as meeting minutes and various correspondence seen by the Nation shed more light on the saga.
Former Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) Director-General Daniel Kiptoo and former Kenya Pipeline Company Managing Director Joe Sang recorded their statements at the DCI headquarters on Wednesday.
The investigations are intended to determine whether a group of bureaucrats and private firms exploited a National Security Council Committee directive to profit from fuel imports, thereby driving up pump prices.
Officers from the DCI’s economic crimes unit have taken over investigations from their operation support unit counterparts, who arrested Mr Kiptoo, Mr Sang, Energy PS Mohamed Liban and two ministry officials last Friday.
From left: Former Kenya Pipeline Company MD Joe Sang, outgoing Petroleum PS Mohamed LIban and outgoing EPRA DG Daniel Kiptoo. The trio resigned amid investigations into the procurement of substandard fuel.
Photo credit: Nation
In their statements, Sang and Kiptoo denied any wrongdoing in the importation of the now-condemned fuel.
On Tuesday, Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi directed that the 60,000 tons of super petrol be withdrawn from the market and directed that oil marketers should not pay for the fuel.
An official familiar with the investigations yesterday told the Nation that Kiptoo told investigators that he had no role in the fuel importation.
Kiptoo, according to the sources, maintained that he was mandated to monitor the prices of fuel and make adjustments after getting reports from importers and the Kenya pipeline.
On his part, Sang told investigators that before his arrest, KPC was in the process of auditing the fuel reserves in their depot. He told the investigators that at the time, there were enough fuel stocks in KPC depots and that there was no risk of a fuel crisis.
Yesterday, the DCI investigators also recorded statements of 20 officers from different state agencies that were involved in the vessel monitoring, the ship which transported the fuel to Mombasa and testing of the consignment.
Officers from the Ministry of Energy, Kenya Ports Authority and Kenya Bureau of Standards recorded statements with the DCI.
On Tuesday, hours after CS Wandayi directed a firm owned by Mombasa businessman Mohamed Jaffer to withdraw its Sh11.8 billion of petroleum products from the Kenyan market.
Mombasa businessman Mohamed Jaffer whose company One Petroleum has been ordered to withdraw the 60,000 tonnes of super petrol from the market.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Mr Jaffer’s One Petroleum Ltd in a statement, said that it imported the super petrol after winning an Energy Ministry tender.
One Petroleum in the statement yielded to the withdrawal order, but stated that the Energy ministry had, in March, awarded four firms contracts for import of petroleum products outside the Government-to-Government framework.
Through the Government-to-Government framework, Kenya sources fuel from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Mr Wandayi said that a similar consignment under the Government-to-Government framework would have cost Sh8.4 billion.
Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
The CS held that allowing the petroleum imported by Mr Jaffer’s One Petroleum Ltd would have pushed prices at the pump up by Sh14 per litre.
Mr Jaffer’s firm maintained that the importation was done in line with the emergency procurement process.
