Kenya’s Ksh 4.8 billion fuel scandal has torn through the energy sector’s top ranks and now threatens to consume two Cabinet secretaries.
Leaked letters have pulled Trade CS Lee Kinyanjui and Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi into the centre of a scheme investigators believe was carefully engineered to flood Kenya with substandard, overpriced fuel while hiding behind the Middle East crisis as a convenient cover.
With five suspects staring down economic sabotage charges and the DCI coordinating with foreign agencies, one question towers above everything else: who truly architected this scandal?
How the Ksh 4.8 Billion Fuel Scandal Climbed All the Way to the Cabinet
The Letter Trail That Put Ministers on the Spot
The paper trail starts on March 26, 2026, when former Energy Principal Secretary Mohamed Liban wrote directly to Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director Esther Ngari, requesting a temporary waiver on quality certification requirements for incoming petroleum products. Liban packaged the request around the disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that any delay in receiving the cargo would trigger a fuel shortage and punish ordinary Kenyans at the pump.
What investigators find particularly telling is that Liban copied that letter to both Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi and Industrialization PS Juma Mukhwana. That single detail destroys any claim of ignorance. Both officials received the letter. Both knew what Liban was requesting from the very beginning.
Two days later, on March 28, Trade CS Lee Kinyanjui wrote directly to Energy CS Wandayi, formally recommending a waiver for the importation of petroleum products carrying dangerously high levels of manganese, sulphur, and benzene—chemical markers that define substandard fuel Kenya’s own regulations explicitly prohibit.
Kinyanjui’s letter directly referenced the earlier correspondence from the State Department for Petroleum dated March 26 and 27, confirming he had read Liban’s groundwork and chosen to act on it.
He attached six conditions that had to be satisfied before the waiver took effect, including destination inspection of the cargo aboard MT Paloma, full compliance with automotive gasoline specifications, a written guarantee that prohibited oxygenates were absent, and a formal indemnity from the importer protecting the Kenya Bureau of Standards against any consequences arising from the waiver.
What happened next is where the scandal turns truly damning. Kinyanjui says he never received any response from the Ministry of Energy after writing that letter. No one confirmed the conditions were met. No one informed him they were not. The substandard fuel came in anyway.
Who Manufactured the Emergency and Who Stood to Gain
Investigators have identified a critical sequence that exposes the manufactured nature of the so-called emergency. On March 25, a full day before Liban formally wrote to Kebs requesting quality waivers, he had already written to One Petroleum Limited director Ali Balala and Oryx Energies CEO Angeline Maangi, authorizing both companies to import approximately 60,000 tonnes of petroleum each, with permission to exceed that figure by up to ten percent.
That timeline demolishes the emergency narrative. Liban authorized the importers before he even requested the quality waivers that would make importation legal. Investigators believe the crisis story was constructed after the fact to justify a deal they say was pre-arranged from the start.
MT Paloma docked at the Port of Mombasa in late March carrying 68,000 tonnes of petroleum products imported by One Petroleum Limited, a company linked to Mombasa tycoon Mohamed Jaffer. A second consignment of 60,000 tonnes through Swiss-owned Oryx Energies was blocked before it could dock once the scandal broke into the open.
The financial motive is breathtaking. One Petroleum’s cargo cost Ksh198,855 per tonne landed in Mombasa. The standard Government-to-Government cargo sourced from Saudi Arabia and the UAE cost Ksh140,111 per tonne, a gap of Ksh58,744 per tonne.
Applied across MT Paloma’s 68,000-tonne consignment, that price difference represents a potential cartel windfall of approximately Ksh4 billion, extracted directly from Kenyan consumers and public coffers.
What Wandayi and Kinyanjui Must Now Answer
CS Kinyanjui has publicly distanced himself from the fallout, insisting his letter merely outlined conditions and that he acted strictly within the law. He says Liban and KPC MD Joe Sang approached him seeking a waiver, and he responded as the law required. That explanation, however, opens a far more uncomfortable question. Why did his ministry never follow up to confirm his six conditions were satisfied before 68,000 tonnes of substandard fuel docked at Mombasa?
CS Wandayi has been harder to pin down. When journalists posed specific questions about Kinyanjui’s letter and whether the outlined conditions were ever verified, Wandayi ignored the direct questions entirely. He later issued a broad public statement condemning cartels and confirmed his ministry had blocked the second consignment once investigators uncovered the full picture.
Senior DCI officers have since confirmed that both Cabinet secretaries must account for what they knew and when they knew it. Investigators describe the leaked letters as documents that will fundamentally redirect the entire probe.
Three senior officials have already resigned: EPRA Director General Daniel Kiptoo Bargoria, KPC MD Joe Sang, and Energy PS Mohamed Liban. Five individuals face potential economic sabotage charges. The DCI is coordinating with foreign investigative agencies through the Mutual Legal Assistance programme, extending the investigation to every country from which the petroleum consignments originated.
Kenya’s Ksh 4.8 billion fuel scandal is no longer a story about rogue officials acting alone in the shadows. It is a story about decisions authorized at the cabinet level, enabled by letters and manufactured emergencies, while cartels positioned themselves to pocket billions. The ministers must now face the full weight of that truth.
