Kenya debt and fuel probe

Kenya’s fuel-import probe has widened just as fresh debt data sharpened scrutiny of how the state borrows, spends and reports public money. (capitalfm.co.ke) On April 4, Chief of Staff Felix Koskei said Petroleum Principal Secretary Mohamed Liban, Kenya Pipeline Company managing director Joe Sang and Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority director general Daniel Kiptoo had resigned as investigators examined alleged manipulation of fuel-stock data. Authorities said the data was used to justify emergency imports outside Kenya’s government-to-government fuel system. (standardmedia.co.ke) Investigators say the vessel MV Paloma docked in Mombasa between March 27 and March 29 carrying a consignment linked to alleged overpricing of more than 4 billion Kenyan shillings, with potential losses rising toward 8 billion Kenyan shillings if a second shipment is confirmed. NTV reported that one contract was signed on March 25 for 68,000 metric tonnes of fuel, two days before the ship docked. (capitalfm.co.ke; ntvkenya.co.ke) The case landed in a sector already under audit pressure. In a report on the Petroleum Development Fund for the year ended June 2025, the Auditor-General said Kenya had no clear framework for fuel-price stabilization even after 13.18 billion Kenyan shillings was spent on oil-market price support and 24.5 billion Kenyan shillings was transferred to other state entities. (capitalfm.co.ke) Debt oversight was also tightening. Kenya’s National Treasury said total public and publicly guaranteed debt stood at 18.35 trillion Kenyan shillings at the end of January 2026, including 6.89 trillion Kenyan shillings in domestic debt and 5.51 trillion Kenyan shillings in external debt. (treasury.go.ke) The International Monetary Fund said on April 9 that Kenya’s debt is still considered sustainable but remains at high risk of debt distress under the October 2024 debt-sustainability analysis. The fund said debt reached 72 percent of gross domestic product at the end of the 2022/23 fiscal year and eased to 66 percent by the end of 2023/24. (imf.org) The same International Monetary Fund report said Kenya’s debt statistics are broadly timely but still miss parts of the public-sector picture, including some non-guaranteed borrowing outside central government and unpaid bills. It also called for closer reporting of securitization deals and public-private partnership liabilities. (imf.org) That overlap is what keeps the fuel case from sitting in an energy silo. Kenya’s debt office says debt service now absorbs 75.3 percent of revenue, and the January bulletin put external debt service for that month alone at 55.70 billion Kenyan shillings. (pdmo.treasury.go.ke; treasury.go.ke) Government officials say the import breach was contained. Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi told lawmakers this week that no substandard fuel reached consumers, and Citizen Digital reported that the government ordered One Petroleum to withdraw invoices and ship the disputed cargo out of Kenya. (the-star.co.ke; citizen.digital) The immediate test is no longer only who approved one shipment. It is whether investigators, auditors and Parliament can turn a March fuel consignment and a January debt bulletin into a fuller accounting of how Kenya manages scarce public money. (capitalfm.co.ke; imf.org)