Kenya’s Oil Scandals Expose Systemic Failures and Conflicts of Interest

Oil scandals in Kenya are nothing new; they reveal how this crucial sector has been captured by networks of commercial interests, influence, and regulatory loopholes exploited by those in power.

Instead of serving as a pillar for strengthening the economy and reducing the cost of living for citizens, the sector has become a playground for benefiting specific groups, while ordinary people continue to bear the burden of high prices.

A clear example is the Triton scandal, which first exposed the scale of weaknesses in oil management in the country.

The losses from that scandal are reported to have exceeded KSh 7 billion.

This exposed not only operational shortcomings in the sector but also entrenched internal influence that enabled procedural violations.

The case has been in court for a long time, and I will stop at that for now.

Over the years, instead of learning from these mistakes, the country was again hit by a KSh 19 billion scandal involving oil procurement and management, this time with competition over what a businessman claimed was a shipment of oil worth billions.

Again, the questions remained the same. Despite much political outcry and promises of decisive action, the results were unsatisfactory, and the whereabouts of the woman who claimed ownership of the oil remain unknown.

Now, the latest scandal has led to senior officials losing their jobs under the pretext that they resigned, highlighting that the problem is not individual people but the entire system.

While disciplinary actions may appear to be a quick fix, they are often a way to reduce public pressure without addressing the root of the problem.

The truth is that the oil sector is built on a foundation of vested interests, where many decisions are made not for citizens’ welfare but for the benefit of certain groups.

In this environment, regulatory institutions become weak or pressured, and transparency mechanisms lose meaning. The result is an endless cycle of scandals.

I see no end to these scandals, and there is reason to believe that the ones that do emerge are only a fraction, surfacing when those in control clash.

Oil causes international conflicts, and billions of dollars are spent on military measures to control them.

Here in Kenya, these battles are more of a local turf war, where each party feels slighted if they perceive they are being manipulated.