The Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) cannot account for over 51 million litres of jet fuel for Moi and Jomo Kenyatta International airports.
A consortium of oil marketing companies (OMCs) have laid their blame on KPC which they allege is responsible for the loss.
This puts the total amount lost by KPC in a spun of six months to over Ksh3.4 billion, even as forensic auditors are investigating the loss of fuel worth Ksh1 billion.
KPC, led by chairman John Ngumi, have been attributing the loss to evaporation and leakage, which the OMCs term as fraud.
The OMCs say that they import enough fuel to service the aviation industry in Kenya, but is stolen at KPC and the loss attributed to other factors. They were responding to a KPC letter dated March 4, which indicated that they had 10.52 million litres of fuel in stock, accusing the OMCs of not importing enough fuel.
However, the oil companies’ Supply Co-ordination Committee said that the fuel in stock should be 29 million litres, indicating 18.48 million litres stock difference.
The companies say that the margin of ‘loss’ is too big considering the allowable extend of the losses.
“We wish to advise that this reported low jet A-1 stocks and looming crisis within KPC system is not clear to us. It is therefore evident that there is a huge variance between KPC books and the physical stocks,” read OMCs’ letter in part.
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The shortage has forced planes taking off from the two airports to fuel in the neighbouring countries following the shortage, as the companies now demand explanation from the Ngumi-led team.
“The 51.26 million litres variance of our jet stocks in the KPC system requires an explanation from KPC as we have already imported this stock and discharged it into the KPC system and the same confirmed by our records,” adds the letter.
About 23 million litres of jet fuel was lost last year, under the custody of KPC. On its part, KPC is unable to explain the discrepancy, opting to wait for an audit. However, stakeholders fear that the audit may be compromised by the main suspects in the scandal.
“The answer may be that our systems are wrongly calibrated or people have been stealing or that we have got leakages or any other reason. We are eager for the answer,” said Ngumi as quoted by a local daily.
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