NAIROBI, Kenya — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has identified the late Kenyan politician Cyrus Jirongo as the person who alerted him to Uganda’s use of middlemen in petroleum imports through Kenya.
Museveni said Jirongo raised the issue with him around 2019, prompting him to instruct then Energy Minister Irene Muloni to investigate and address the matter.
“It was a Kenyan Senator called Jirongo who told me this around 2019. I immediately tasked the then Minister Irene Muloni to sort out that mess,” Museveni said in a statement on Sunday.
The revelation has reignited debate in Kenya over the country’s Government-to-Government (G-to-G) petroleum importation arrangement, although Museveni’s account refers to events that occurred before Kenya introduced its current G-to-G framework in 2023.
Museveni Says Jirongo Alerted Him in 2019
Museveni said he had not known that Uganda was sourcing petroleum products through intermediaries in Kenya until Jirongo brought the matter to his attention.
He previously disclosed the issue during the groundbreaking of a 320-million-litre petroleum storage terminal in Mpigi District, saying Uganda had been buying fuel through Kenyan middlemen instead of procuring it directly.
“The Republic of Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya. Can you imagine that? And the person who woke me up first was a senator from Kenya,” Museveni said.
According to current reports, the “Jirongo” Museveni referred to was Cyrus Jirongo, the former Lugari MP and politician who also served as a senator.
Uganda Later Changed Its Fuel Procurement Model
Museveni said Uganda eventually changed its procurement approach and began sourcing bulk petroleum products directly.
Uganda later moved to an arrangement involving Vitol, a global petroleum trading company, with officials saying the new system resulted in lower premiums for fuel supplied to the Ugandan market.
The development has renewed scrutiny of the cost and structure of petroleum imports between Kenya and Uganda, particularly the role played by intermediaries and oil marketing companies.
Kenya Defends Its G-to-G Arrangement
Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has rejected suggestions that the country’s G-to-G petroleum arrangement involved wrongdoing.
Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi said Kenya introduced the arrangement in 2023 to address a severe shortage of US dollars that threatened fuel supplies and put pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
Under the arrangement, Saudi Aramco Trading Fujairah, ADNOC Global Trading and ENOC Singapore agreed to supply refined petroleum products to Kenya on 180-day credit terms.
Wandayi said the international suppliers subsequently opted to appoint licensed Kenyan oil marketing companies to handle local supply logistics.
The initial counterparties were Gulf Energy, Galana Energies and Oryx Energies Kenya, followed by One Petroleum, Asharami Synergy and BE Energy, according to the ministry.
Ministry Says Oil Firms Were Selected by Suppliers
Wandayi said the Kenyan government did not impose the local oil marketing companies on the international suppliers.
Instead, he said the international oil companies were given a list of licensed Kenyan firms for vetting and selected the companies they would work with.
The ministry argued that insisting on government-appointed counterparties could have caused the international suppliers to abandon the arrangement and undermined the objective of securing fuel supplies during the dollar shortage.
The government has therefore maintained that the presence of private oil companies in the G-to-G supply chain does not amount to evidence of irregular procurement.
Gachagua Revives Criticism of Ruto
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who has previously criticised the G-to-G petroleum arrangement, said Museveni’s comments reinforced concerns he had raised about the deal.
Gachagua alleged that President William Ruto was behind the use of intermediaries in the arrangement and accused him of conducting the business through proxies.
“He went to the Middle East and identified three companies and made a deal with them and then looked for a proxy, a company called Gulf Oil. That is the company that fronts William Ruto. So he is the one doing business,” Gachagua alleged.
Questions Over Kenya-Uganda Fuel Trade
The controversy has now placed renewed attention on the distinction between Uganda’s earlier petroleum procurement system and Kenya’s G-to-G arrangement introduced in 2023.
Museveni’s account concerns Uganda’s use of Kenyan intermediaries around 2019, while Kenya’s current arrangement was established several years later in response to the country’s foreign-exchange pressures.
Kenya’s Energy Ministry continues to defend the G-to-G model as a mechanism that helped secure fuel supplies and reduce immediate pressure on the country’s dollar reserves.
