A Kenyan senator helped Uganda uncover the use of middlemen in its petroleum imports, President Yoweri Museveni has said.
Museveni said he only learnt that Uganda was buying fuel through Kenyan intermediaries after the senator raised the issue with him.
“The Republic of Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya. Can you imagine that? And the person who woke me up first was a senator from Kenya,” Museveni said.
The Ugandan leader was speaking on Thursday during the groundbreaking ceremony for a 320-million-litre petroleum storage terminal in Mpigi District.
He said the information prompted him to question officials involved in fuel procurement and look for a cheaper way of sourcing petroleum products directly from bulk suppliers.
Museveni said the previous arrangement was costing Uganda more, with figures presented at the ceremony showing significant differences in the premiums paid for fuel.
Uganda was paying $118 per metric tonne for diesel under the old arrangement, compared with $83 under its current deal involving Vitol and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).
For petrol, the premium dropped from $97.50 to $61.50 per metric tonne, while that of aviation fuel fell from $114.25 to $79.25.
The figures, Museveni said, convinced him that the old system had to be stopped.
“So that's when I had to come in and say, this must end. And it ended,” he said.
The changes gave UNOC a bigger role in importing petroleum products directly.
Uganda’s push to cut out Kenyan oil marketing companies became more apparent in 2024, when Kampala sought to have UNOC import fuel directly through Kenya.
The move initially ran into disagreements over licensing and access to Kenya’s petroleum infrastructure before the two countries reached an agreement.
Under the deal, UNOC was allowed to import petroleum products through Kenya and use infrastructure including the Port of Mombasa and the Kenya Pipeline network.
Museveni did not name the Kenyan senator who brought the matter to his attention.
The changes have also come as Kenya implements its government-to-government petroleum supply arrangement, introduced in 2023 to secure fuel supplies from government-linked suppliers in the Gulf.
