Locals eye scraps as connected sharks hold onto petrodollars

Tullow crude oil. (Photo: Courtesy)

At Lavington Bar and Guest House in Lokichar town, revellers sit in in the open sipping smuggled beer from Uganda in the open on a dusty cloudless night. The air is dry, the temperature warm and the beers warmer.

The bar with a similar name to an upmarket neighbourhood in Nairobi best represents the aspirations the discovery of oil five years ago brought to this desert town. Outgoing men troop to have a drink every night, watch news on TV and talk politics on benches spread on a cracked cement floor.