How NGO’s dossier scuttled joint Kenya, Uganda pipeline plan

Geza Ulole

JF-Expert Member
Oct 31, 2009
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How NGO’s dossier scuttled joint Kenya, Uganda pipeline plan
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Mr Fazul Mahamed, the NGO Co-ordination Board executive director (left) and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni. Mr Mahamed yesterday said the board had opened investigations into the activities of an NGO after it was made aware its role in the production of a report that influenced Total’s decision. PHOTO | FILE

In Summary

  • Fazul Mahamed, the head of Kenya’s NGOs Co-ordination Board, said an ‘international NGO’ was being investigated over the matter but declined to name the organisation.
  • Mr Mahamed declined to give details of the NGO involved and possible actions that may be taken in the event that the charity is found guilty but promised that the findings will be made public in the coming weeks.
  • As recently as September 2015, Kampala had backed a long-standing agreement with Nairobi that the pipeline would pass through Kenya only to announce that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tanzania.


French petroleum company Total made a decision to discontinue Kenya’s crude oil pipeline deal with Uganda after it received a non-governmental organisation’s (NGO) security report warning of the risk of terrorist attacks in the Kenyan territory, a senior government official said yesterday.

Fazul Mahamed, the head of Kenya’s NGOs Co-ordination Board, said an ‘international NGO’ was being investigated over the matter but declined to name the organisation.

Uganda in a surprise move announced in April that it had decided to build its crude oil pipeline through Tanzania, dealing a blow to Kenya’s hopes of partnering with its western neighbour on the project.

Total, which is one of the three companies developing Uganda’s oil fields, had opposed the Kenyan route citing security risks mainly arising from Al-Shabaab terrorists — and especially in the section of the line that runs close to the Somalia border.

Mr Mahamed yesterday said the board had opened investigations into the activities of the NGO after it was made aware its role in the production of a report that influenced Total’s decision.

“We have that information, we have done preliminary investigations and we have taken legal sanctions but we have not yet completed the process,” Mr Mahamed said, adding that security is the preserve of the national security organs and anyone working in that area must be certified by the institutions that deal with security.

READ: Kenya taps Ethiopia in joint oil pipeline deal after Uganda setback

Mr Mahamed declined to give details of the NGO involved and possible actions that may be taken in the event that the charity is found guilty but promised that the findings will be made public in the coming weeks.

Total denied knowledge of such a report.

“What Total did was to analyse and compare the different route scenarios. Based on a variety of sources, and a variety of criteria, among which was security, but also economic rationale and technical merit,” said the firm.

Mwenda Mbijiwe, a security consultant, however, said the NGO report exists and that there was need to limit how far NGOs can go in collecting security-related information.

“We are aware that a certain NGO based in the northern part of Kenya wrote a negative report against the Kenya-Uganda joint venture for the pipeline,” he said.

“That report was processed and became the reason upon which Uganda rejected the joint venture.”

Mr Mbijiwe said authorities needed to process such information before it is passed on to foreign entities even in areas the NGOs are allowed to operate.

Mr Mahamed’s revelations appear to explain the hard stance the government has recently taken against NGOs, including the latest demand that their Kenyan employees must earn equal pay as their expatriate counterparts.

Landlocked Uganda has about 1.7 billion barrels of crude oil and has been working on export plans together with three companies involved in developing the Hoima oil fields.

Other companies involved in the project are China National Offshore Oil Companies (CNOOC) and Irish firm Tullow Oil, which is prospecting for oil in Kenya’s Lokichar Basin of Turkana.

The original plan was to build a pipeline from Uganda to northern Kenya where it would link up with a line from Turkana’s oil basin before proceeding along the proposed Lapsett corridor.

As recently as September 2015, Kampala had backed a long-standing agreement with Nairobi that the pipeline would pass through Kenya only to announce that it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tanzania.

The announcement created a near diplomatic spat between Kenya and Tanzania, prompting a flurry of meetings among the three countries to try to break the impasse.

Tanzania early this year nearly turned the race for the lucrative project into a diplomatic crisis when it seized the passports of Kenya’s Energy secretary Charles Keter and other top government officials who were trying to enter Tanzania for a visit to the Tanga port.

Tanzanian authorities reportedly said their action was informed by Kenya’s failure to invite them to Lamu, or earlier talks held with Uganda at State House, Nairobi.

Kenya has a proven 750 million barrels in Turkana and the joint pipeline was to enable the two countries to share the pipeline’s costs.

The arrangement was supported by Tullow Oil but opposed by Total, which had expressed readiness to finance the $4 billion pipeline to Tanga in Tanzania.

“There are debates over security in Kenya, which to me are very important,” Total’s chief executive, Patrick Pouyanne, told Reuters in October last year.

Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terrorists have made multiple attacks in Kenya, especially along the border with Somalia, causing Total to fear that the pipeline would provide a soft target for the militants.

The militant group has, however, preferred targets with many casualties instead of hitting economic installations.

Kenya’s assurances that it would secure the pipeline were not enough to tilt the scales back in its favour.

There were conflicting reports on the viability of each of the pipelines with both Kenya and Total producing their own feasibility studies to support their arguments.

A final report by Uganda, however, declared the Tanga route as a lower-cost option and cited other factors such as terrain, land acquisition costs and the slow pace of Lamu Port’s development as reason for change of plan.

Sources, however, indicated that the security question played a major role with Total, which held sway in the route decision.

The 1,400km pipeline runs from Hoima District in the Albertine Graben through Masaka and Mutukula in Uganda to Bukoba, Biharamulo, Shinyanga and finally to the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania.

Kenya has over 4,000 NGOs operating across the country with a combined annual budget of about Sh140 billion.

Some of the organisations work in de-radicalisation programmes and with refugees giving them a first-hand account of sensitive security information.

The reports that some of the charities may be collecting information at the behest of foreign organisations come 18 months after 510 NGOs were deregistered on suspicion that they were aiding terrorist organisations.

Kenya is now working to develop her own pipeline with the project expected to cost Sh210 billion.

How NGO’s dossier scuttled joint Kenya, Uganda pipeline plan
 
Duuu kumbe jamaa kiliwauma kukosa bomba..... till the moment they are finding out who were behind the defeat.
:D:D:D:D
 
Kwa hiyo Total hawakuwa na knowledge kuhusu hali ya usalama Kenya mpaka walipopata taarifa ya NGO?
 
Siamini kuwa serikali ya Tz inauwezo wa kufanya external espionage kwa kutumia foreign NGO simply because we are not that sophisticated .
 
I was thinking the issue is over. But it is still revolving in their heads. I'm worring about the fate of EAC. NO TRUST TO ONE ANOTHER.
 
eliakeem, serikali ya Jubilee ni mwendo wa kutafuta visingizio! Al Shaabab wamelipua communication mast, water pipeline and pump huko Mandera tungoje tuone hiyo pipeline ya Kenya na Ethiopia.
 
Leo Asubuhi at 1 am hamna mawasiliano wala maji Mandera. Main stream media inaficha, maana jamaa wamelipiu bomba la maji kutoa msisitizo wa nn watafanya bomba la mafuta likijengwa.
 
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