Kenya is currently grappling with a severe nationwide fuel shortage, triggering widespread panic buying and chaotic scenes at petrol stations across the country. From Naivasha to Kakamega, Isiolo, and Kirinyaga's Kagio town, motorists and motorcycle operators have been forming long queues, scrambling for scarce fuel supplies. Many filling stations have reported running dry, while those with limited stock are quickly overwhelmed, leading to significant disruptions in transport and business activities across affected regions, including Murang’a.

This acute scarcity is linked to a controversial 60,000-metric-tonne consignment of super petrol imported by One Petroleum Limited. Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi has issued stern directives to address the situation. One Petroleum has been ordered to immediately remove the contentious cargo from the country and to withdraw all invoices issued to oil marketing companies (OMCs), replacing them with credit notes.

Furthermore, CS Wandayi explicitly instructed OMCs not to honor any payments related to these invoices nor to uplift any product from this particular consignment. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has also been directed to exclude this product from its monthly computation of petroleum product costs, aiming to prevent any artificial inflation of prices.

The root of the controversy lies in the shipment's contravention of Kenya's government-to-government (G-to-G) fuel supply agreement. This framework, established in 2023 with international partners like Aramco Trading, Fujairah FZE, ADNOC Global Trading Limited, and Emirates National Oil Company (Singapore) Private Limited, was designed to safeguard supply security and ensure price stability. The controversial consignment was priced at Sh198,000 per metric tonne, a stark contrast to the Sh140,000 for fuel imported under the G-to-G framework. This Sh58,000 difference per metric tonne, if allowed, would have translated to an approximate Sh14 per litre increase in fuel prices for this consignment alone during the upcoming review.

The fallout from this questionable shipment has led to the dramatic arrest and subsequent resignation of several senior government officials. Those implicated and detained include Petroleum Principal Secretary Mohamed Liban, former EPRA Director-General Daniel Kiptoo, former Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) Managing Director Joe Sang, Joseph Wafula, the deputy director of petroleum at the Energy Ministry, and Joel Mburu, a supply and logistics manager at KPC. These high-profile detentions, described as