Fooling Kenyans: No day in court for fuel bosses as probe remains incomplete
Crime and Justice
By
Kamau Muthoni
| Apr 14, 2026
Former Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) Managing Director Jose Sang, former Principal Secretary Mohamed Liban and former Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority Director General Daniel Kiptoo were not charged or presented in court yesterday as had been anticipated.
Our source had indicated last week on Friday that there was a likelihood that the trio would be arraigned on Monday.
However, our source later said that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) was yet to complete investigations.
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“The file is not yet complete. I think they were also to go after managers (at Kenya Pipeline),” the source said, adding that the matter would be passed to the Director of Public Prosecution when the investigators were certain they had a water-tight case.
A lawyer familiar with the happenings told The Standard that there was a likelihood that the trio would be charged on Tuesday (today) instead.
At the time of contacting him, he said that they had been summoned and were at the Kiambu Road headquarters until late in the evening.
In court, KPC’s logistics manager John Mburu claimed that he had nothing to do with the saga. In fact, in his court papers, he claimed that he knew nothing about the Sh4.8 billion oil saga.
“At the outset, I wish to state that I have no role whatsoever in the importation, transportation, distribution or the pricing of oil and petroleum products and neither am I aware of the alleged unlawful importation of petroleum products as alleged in the said press statement and multiple media reports on the issue,” claimed Mburu.
Home raided
Mburu told the Anti-Corruption High Court Judge Rose Ougo that on April 2, 2026, he was informed by his neighbours that armed men had raided his home at Rironi.
He further said that the following day, the same men allegedly came back and ransacked the house, took some items in the house, then laid siege.
“The applicant later came to learn from the press that the Head of Public Service had issued a press statement advising that there was an ongoing investigation into an allegation of unlawful importation of oil and petroleum products into the country outside the applicable policy and regulatory framework and wherein he stated that the applicant herein had been implicated for his alleged role therein and administrative action recommended to be taken against me,” he claimed.
Mburu had gone to court seeking to block any arrest or detention. He was released on a Sh5 million bond.
According to him, his task in KPC is to ensure that petroleum products are transported to consumers in the country. He asserted that there was no evidence to show that he was involved in any scam.
The case will be mentioned on April 21