Day Kibaki was duped

By James Anyanza

As the Kenya Pipeline Company scandal continues to unfold, it has emerged that President Kibaki may have been duped into commissioning an Sh8.5 billion white elephant two months ago.

The commissioning of the project in Makindu was marked with pomp and colour and attended by Prime Minister Raila Odinga among other dignitaries.

The project was considered a milestone in boosting the capacity of Makindu, Konza, Manyani and Samburu pump stations.

The (KPC) Line One Capacity Enhancement projects — whose cost ballooned from Sh2.5 to Sh8.5 billion — only achieved a fraction of its projected capacity, raising doubts over its viability.

When President Kibaki arrived at Makindu on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway on November 26 last year for the launch of the projects, only one pump station was operational.

"It was embarrassing. The Chinese contractor used outdated technology in constructing the pump station," said an engineer familiar with its design but who sought anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

As a result, the oil flow only improved by a paltry 110 cubic metres (from 440 to 550 cubic metres), which is about 20 per cent boost.

The projects began in 2007 and were expected to double the flow of white petroleum from Mombasa to Nairobi from an average of 440 cubic metres to 880 cubic metres an hour.

However, shoddy construction work thrust the entire plans into disarray. But the President’s handlers had no way of knowing the intrigues behind the scenes as Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi, Assistant minister Maalim Mahmoud Mohammed and the Parliamentary Committee on Energy, Communication and Public Works had only a few days earlier toured the project.

According to the KPC website, they all gave it a clean bill of health.

Committee Chairman James Rege said they were optimistic the project would be unveiled within the stipulated period of 18 months.

Other members in the tour included MPs Charles Lugano, Charles Nyamai, Emilio Kathuri, Kambi Kazungu, Maina Kamau and Isaac Muoki.

But Mr Rege now says cost escalation on KPC projects will be investigated. The costs soared after the split of the construction tender and importation of equipment in parts.

The project was split into civil works, mechanical or pump installation and electrical and control works, a source privy to the matter told The Standard yesterday.

Project Design

During the design of the project, the Chinese contractor is said to have insisted on maintaining an old pump operational philosophy of the 1970s, namely fluid coupling instead of modern technology of frequency control, which saves energy.

This led to a disagreement with then KPC chief mechanical engineer who was withdrawn from the project and transferred.

The project design is then understood to have duplicated existing stations with no net improvements.

In the fluid coupling method, the mortar drives the pumps to run constantly at full energy consumption.

It is understood that engineers in the Line One Capacity Enhancement project failed to offer engineering design that would have seen the project meet the requirements of the flow rate envisaged. This led to an oversight in the design works and the source of oil products at the Kipevu Oil Storage Facility (KOSF) was never taken into consideration.

Capacity Enhancement Line I (Mombasa to Nairobi) and Line II (Nairobi to Eldoret) acknowledge that the rising demand in petroleum products has put a strain on the Pipeline, which is operating at threshold.

A senior Energy ministry official, who declined to be quoted, admitted that the Line I Capacity Enhancement project had failed to meet the targets. He blamed the malfunction to constant power blackouts.

Enhancement of the petroleum products flow rate from Mombasa to Nairobi, according to engineers, will require massive investment of new pumps at KOSF and a pipe of higher diameter to the first pump station at Changamwe, expected to cost Sh800 million. "Unless the improvement is done, the pumping capacity cannot be improved," said the source.

Based on this realisation, former KPC MD George Okungu is said to have convened a team to work on design requirements and include the scope in the yet to be signed but already awarded Line 4 (Nairobi to west Kenya) contract.

The contract, which is understood to have been awarded to the same Chinese firm, was due for signing on January 12. The Line 4 project is to be funded by a consortium of local banks to the tune of Sh8 billion.

Details have also emerged how Kenya Power and Lighting Company lost transformers moments after the project was commissioned. Their cost could not be established. But KPLC Deputy Communications Manager Migwi Theuri said: "I’m not aware. I don’t have such information."

Efforts to get a comment from Kiraitu or PS Patrick Nyoike proved futile as they were said to be in daylong meetings. KPC also declined to comment on the matter. Mrs Jacinta Ochieng, the corporation’s public relations manager: "We have a policy. We don’t talk to the media."

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