Top energy chiefs in the country have tendered their resignation following arrest and detention over an oil importation saga.
According to Head of Public Service Felix Koskei President William Ruto had accepted the resignation of Mohamed Liban as Principal Secretary in the Energy Ministry’s State Department of Petroleum.
Koskei also announced that the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) board had accepted the resignation of Joe Sang as its Managing Director.
“The Board of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has received the resignation of Mr Daniel Kiptoo Bargoria,” said Koskei.
The other two suspects who had been arrested, Joseph Wafula, the Deputy Director of Petroleum in the ministry and Joel Mburu a supply and logistics manager at KPC had also resigned from their posts.
“The government remains steadfast in safeguarding the public good and protecting national interests. Any act of economic sabotage will be fully investigated and met with firm and decisive action against any individual or entity found culpable,” said Koskei.
In the statement, Koskei confirmed that the arrests were taken after President Ruto noted that the primary duty bearers may have manipulated data on in-country fuel stocks.
“This appears to have been done to exploit rising global prices and public anxiety, thereby creating a false impression of an impending supply shortfall,” he said in a statement.
According to head of public service the misrepresentation then led to the irregular procurement of an emergency fuel cargo by the Energy ministry by Mohamed, Kiptoo and Sang.
“The shipment in question was procured in blatant breach of the G2G framework, at a price significantly above the contracted rates, in complete disregard of established emergency procurement procedures, and was of substandard quality.”
Koskei called on all relevant actors within the energy sector to collaborate with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and other investigative agencies probing the matter.
“All governance actors within the sector are required to provide full access to relevant information to facilitate these investigations.”
Koskei said that fuel in Kenya has remained stable due to the government to government supply arrangement that was signed in 2023 between Kenya and Aramco Trading Fajuriah, ADNOC global trading limited and Emirates National Oil Company Singapore Pte Limited.
The deal he said was to stabilise fuel supply and cushion the market against global volatility and to mitigate the foreign exchange constraints experienced in 2022 and 2023.
The five men were arrested on Thursday night, April 2, 2026, and held at the Gigiri, Capitol Hill and Lang’ata police stations by DCI officers, with the detectives reportedly seizing money running in hundreds of millions of shillings.
They were questioned overnight and Mohamed was the only one freed after he fell ill while in custody.
The rest spent the night in custody and were questioned in Friday and Saturday.
