Museveni Names Kenya’s Jirongo as Source of Oil Middlemen Warning

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday identified late Kenyan politician Cyrus Jirongo as the person who alerted him that Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya, seeking to clarify remarks that have triggered political debate in Kenya over fuel imports.

Museveni said Jirongo raised the issue around 2019, before William Ruto became president and before Kenya introduced its government-to-government (G2G) fuel import arrangement in 2023.

“It was a Kenyan Senator called Jirongo who told me this around 2019,” Museveni said in a statement marking his 82nd birthday. “I immediately tasked the then Minister Irene Muloni to sort out that mess.”

Museveni made the initial disclosure days earlier while breaking ground for a 320-million-litre fuel storage terminal in Uganda, saying a Kenyan senator had “woken me up” to the use of middlemen in Uganda’s petroleum purchases.

Some Kenyan media initially interpreted the remarks as a reference to former President Uhuru Kenyatta, suggesting Museveni had avoided naming him directly by referring to a Kenyan senator.

Source: Chimp Reports.