Ex-KPC manager seeks court protection as activist goes after Wandayi over fuel saga

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The Sh12 billion saga has taken a new twist, with the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) logistics manager, John Mburu, moving to court, seeking its protection from an alleged looming arrest.

This comes as activist Francis Awino filed a case to have Energy Cabinet Secretary  Opiyo Wandayi removed from office.

Mburu filed a case, seeking anticipatory bail from the Anti-Corruption High Court. He claimed that he feared that he will be pursued and taken into custody.

“The applicant prays that pending the hearing and determination of this application, this court be pleased to issue a conservatory order restraining the respondents, their servants, agents, officers, or anybody else including persons acting on their behalf, from arresting and holding the applicant in custody before they have summoned him to attend the designated police station for purposes of investigations into the alleged unlawful importation of oil and petroleum products into the country or otherwise,” he argued.

In the case, the senior manager told the court that he was on holiday at his home in Rironi, Kiambu, when persons broke in and carted away items. This was on April 3.

He stated that since then, he has been living in fear that the officers drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) will pounce on him. Mburu alleged that he has been suffering from a series of migraines owing to the happenings.

He stated that despite doctors granting him three days to rest, he has not seen his home owing to an alleged siege by the officers who are waiting for him.

“The applicant believes these are agents of the respondents herein assigned to forcefully and without basis apprehend and take him into custody and harass him,” he claimed, adding that his predicament was simply because of his work.
He stated that days after the raid, his former boss, Joe Sang, ex- Petroleum Principal Secretary Mohamed Liban, and former Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s former CEO Daniel Kiptoo were arrested, and subsequently  resigned over the fuel scandal.

He stated that he was willing to attend any police station if required to.

As Mburu was seeking the court’s protection, Awino was filing a case against Wandayi, seeking to force him out of office over the same saga.

In his case, Awino argued that the CS’s stay in office was long overdue as he allegedly bore overall responsibility for this.

“The continued stay in office by the respondent undermines public confidence in the government and erodes the constitutional principles of accountability, transparency and good governance,” he argued.

Awino alleged that he was attacked by goons for calling the CS to account for the saga.

He maintained that the broom could not sweep the entire energy sector bosses and leave out the CS for being clean as cotton.

“ The respondent has been implicated in the irregular and unlawful importation of substandard petroleum products in contravention of established legal and regulatory frameworks. The respondent, as a Cabinet Secretary, is the ultimate authority responsible for the energy and petroleum sector and exercises immense power over procurement, regulation, and policy decisions affecting millions of Kenyans,” claimed Awino.

The activist claimed that he believed the fuel crisis was artificially created to justify the emergency procurement.

 He stated that despite this, the CS has neither accepted responsibility nor has he stepped aside.

“The public interest demands that persons accused of serious constitutional violations and abuse of office should not be allowed to continue exercising public power pending judicial determination,” he argued.

Awino wants Wandayi to be ordered out until the case is heard and determined. At the same time, he wants, in the alternative, the court to bar the CS from making or implementing decisions in relation to fuel.