Macharia Irungu – Managing Director, Kenya Pipeline Company
The highly guarded smuggling of 30,000 metric tonnes of petroleum into the country by Gulf Energy Limited on New Year’s Eve has incriminated top government officials in the ministry of petroleum and the Kenya pipeline.
According to insider sources, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Ethics And Anti-Corruption commission officers are unable to investigate or crack the case because they have been barred. Normally, such a case would interest the accountability institutions but their hands are tied, a source confirmed to the editor of this site in confidentiality.
The oil heist has badly incriminated the officials at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining after they offered a safe veil of shield to an invisible but well-connected team code-named “elite group” to facilitate the clearance of the consignment at the Port of Mombasa.
Records show that the vessel, M/T Jag Prerana, was allowed to offload the fuel, worth billions of shillings, by officials from the Ministry of Petroleum following a request from oil marketer Gulf Energy even though it was not among the firms prequalified to bring in the commodity.
Joseph Wafula, Chief Economist at the Ministry of Petroleum directed clearance of the consignment upon payment of the requisite levies and taxes on December 30, 2021. Joesph Wafula has made a cameo appearance on this website over his past corruption endeavours and unexplained wealth that has raised eyebrows but interestingly evaded the sharp eyes of the Asset Recovery agency.
Investigators have linked the oil heist to Kenya Pipeline MD Dr Macharia Irungu who has on many occasions been heard bragging about having protection from the first family. Interestingly, Macharia Irungu, who is also a church elder has steered Kenya Pipeline to the corruption path.
Macharia Irungu was appointed in November 2019 to stop corruption, reshape and transform the company after it was marred with corruption scandals in the Joe Sang era but it seems he interpreted it as “his time to eat”
Macharia Irungu has turned the Kenya pipeline into his personal property and investigators are being asked to storm in and investigate the corruption especially on tendering.
Asharami Synergy Ltd, was turned away from the Mombasa port on April 1 2020 when its fuel was rejected by Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). A source at KPC said that after tests, the quality of the fuel did not match the paperwork presented by the firm.
It was a lie so as to fix the oil firm that sources its products from Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), one of the World’s best-known producers of quality oil. Asharami wanted a non-biased firm other than the corrupt Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS) to conduct a retest; however, that was not accepted by the corrupt masters of looting Kenya as they knew what they had done.
“Such a test will provide an outcome that will be acceptable to all,” Asharami said.
The matter is in international arbitration thereby Kenya risks losing billions if found culpable.
A few weeks ago, the MD ordered for the retendering of almost all major tenders after staff refused to bow to his demands especially on awarding tenders to his cronies.
The editor of this website is in possession of WhatsApp conversations from groups between some staffers in Kenya Pipeline procurement, some KPC engineers and shady businessmen.
Other staff members have complained of receiving threats when they refuse to act as Macharia Irungu wants.
In the next article, we focus on corruption at the Human Resource Department
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