It seems like someone somewhere has declared a cold war on The Deputy President William Ruto. It all started with calling of names alleged involvement in various graft cases and now is hitting hard on his allies as well.
Should his allies be afraid?
Of course yes. The targeting is so much real and everyone on his contrary side is determined to bring him down.
The wrath has all started with the Kenya Pipeline Managing Director Joe Sang who has been sent packing by the senior officials at the company. This is the first indicator of things falling apart.
Sang is close to Ruto and is a frequent visitor to the DP’s Harambee House Annex and his Karen residence.
The State House official did not say whether he had instructions from President Uhuru Kenyatta to issue the ultimatum.
But the official, according to two KPLC board members, informed Sang that he had to leave office to facilitate investigations into multi-million shillings scandals.
“He was given the two choices and asked to choose one. He chose to resign in the hope that he would not be investigated or arrested,” a board member said.
But no sooner had Sang handed in his resignation letter than the board accepted it and immediately invited the DCI to investigate a number of issues. It announced that it will undertake a forensic audit of some of major controversial projects.
All KPLC directors but one attended yesterday’s special board meeting, said to be harmonious.
In a statement, chairman John Ngumi said the board decided to invite the DCI to probe the loss of 11 million liters of fuel under Sang’s watch.
The board appeared to yield to pressure from oil marketing firms by ordering a forensic audit of the stock positions by December 31.
The forensic audit will be done by the firms through their joint company, Supplycor Kenya Limited, after they expressed alarm about an oil theft scam at KPLC.
Ten leading oil marketers had written a joint letter dated October 26, 2018, in which they demanded to conduct their own forensic audit to check the accuracy of stock statements issued by KPLC.
“KPC is still struggling two years later to clean up the spill of 400,000 litres at River Thange. KPC transports 800 million litres a year. If KPC lost 0.25 per cent through leakage, that is five times as much. That would be very evident on the ground but we don’t see any such leakage. There is no leakage”, he said.
The marketing firms at loggerheads with KPLC management over loss of the fuel want to establish the location of the oil, a request that sparked vicious boardroom wars at KPLC headquarters.
The management previously explained that the 11.646 million litres of fuel was lost through spillage of 5,956 million litres and pilferage of 5.69 million litres between March 2017 and May 2018.
“The board directed management to accord maximum cooperation to both the DCI and forensic auditors,” Ngumi said after chairing the special board meeting.
An insider who rose through the ranks to be the company MD, Sang has been at the helm of the state agency since April 2016 when he was confirmed.
He was previously the KPLC general manager for Finance Strategy and was tapped by the board from within to drive the company’s vision 2025 strategy.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA in strategy, Sang is also a CPA (K) and was at the height of his career before behind-the-scene manoeuvres forced him out of office.