Kenya Pipeline boss now links Kisumu oil theft to engineers

Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) chief executive Joe Sang has linked the weekend oil leaks in Kisumu to theft by engineers with knowledge of petroleum piping.

Mr Sang on Monday said only engineering experts have the skills to divert fuel from the main Nairobi-Kisumu pipeline, causing the kind of leakage reported in the Kibos area.

The KPC boss said police are on the hunt for the suspected engineers.

“This is work that was done by engineers because to flow a product in a moving pipeline is not something that can be done by ordinary Kenyans,” said Mr Sang when he toured the leakage site Tuesday.

“What they did is that they used a technology where you do not go above the surface. They were able to dig below the ground a tunnel of 200 metres and even supplied themselves with oxygen.”

Unfamiliar smell

The illegal siphoning of petroleum was discovered on Friday last week by residents who noticed an unfamiliar smell before realising that there was underground fuel seepage.

The suspects are said to have been pumping the fuel into tankers using a generator.

They used KPC pipes to channel the fuel along water pipes.

Locals said that the suspect told them that he was connecting water when he was doing the underground digging sometime early last year.

“We knew he was connecting water, that’s what he told the labourers he contracted to do the digging,” said Philip Onyango, a resident.

The pipeline company completed the repair on the line over the weekend and is set to begin a clean-up to restore the environment.

In July 2017, the KPC lost diesel and kerosene worth millions of shillings in a similar illegal connection in Muhoroni on the Nakuru-Kisumu line.

Leak detectors

Mr Sang said ongoing procurement of leak detectors and a pipeline intrusion system will help to detect such illegal connections in the future.

The KPC is laying fibre optic cables running along the pipelines to also help detect leakages in future.

While seeking to allay fears of a possible fuel shortage arising from the leakage, Mr Sang appealed to locals to provide information on illegal connections.

The firm paid up to Sh13.8 million last year in initial compensation to residents of Thange Valley in Kibwezi after a 2015 oil leak on its pipeline.

Residents had complained that their livestock had died and their water was no longer suitable for irrigation or domestic use. Some reported unusual sicknesses which they related to the leakage.

The KPC said it had paid out up to Sh22 million in other restoration programmes.