Police unearth illegal oil connection in Kilifi, arrest yard owner

Police in Kilifi are holding the owner of a private yard that has been allegedly used to steal oil from the Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) through illegal connection.

According to Rabai sub-county Deputy Commissioner Caroline Nzwili, police moved to the yard in Kokotoni in Rabai along the Mombasa–Nairobi highway on Saturday and arrested the owner.

Ms Nzwili said the police are hunting for the main suspect who had rented the ground to start a petrol station. The man went underground soon after learning that police were on his trail.

"When police moved to the yard, they managed to get the land owner who said he had rented out the area to a business man and he did not know what type of business he was running. But he was arrested to help with investigation," said Nzwili.

She said the police got a tip off from the public that they had seen a stream of flowing diesel in the area and after tracking the stream, they ended up at the yard.

"At first we taught there was a leakage somewhere along the main pipeline but after tracking the flow, police officers and the security officers from the Kenya Pipeline Corporation came to discover that the operator of the illegal petrol station had constructed a tunnel before he did some illegal connection to the main line," said Nzwili.

She said preliminary investigations had shown that the operator of the illegal petrol station had constructed a tunnel about 100m away and connected it with the main KPC pipeline for siphoning.