We're so wet with fuel, KPC boss Macharia says amid crisis

The Kenya Pipeline Company has reassured the country that it has sufficient fuel reserves in its depots amid the ongoing crisis.

Managing director Irungu Macharia said on Wednesday the oil reserves are sufficient to meet demand for one and a half months.

"The only thing I can assure you your excellency is that Kenya Pipeline is so full of product I don't know where to take it," Macharia said.

“We are so wet, the country has all the fuel it requires,” he added.

He spoke at a meeting where ODM leader Raila Odinga met with fuel stakeholders at a Nairobi hotel to discuss the crisis. 

Macharia said KPC depots have 200 million litres of super petrol, 160 million litres of diesel and 60  million litres of jet fuel.

Macharia's assurance came amid acute fuel shortage countrywide.

Long queues dominated most petrol stations on Monday as motorists and boda boda riders scrambled for the precious product.

The crisis attracted uproar from a section of politicians with Deputy President William Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza luminaries accusing the state and oil cartels for causing the shortage.

Ruto claimed the fuel scarcity was as a result of the government illegally diverting Sh39 billion oil subsidy funds from the Petroleum Development Fund to the agriculture sector.

Garissa town MP Aden Duale on the other hand claimed the shortage was as a result of oil marketers hoarding fuel due to lack of profit.

He said the marketers were yet to be paid subsidy arrears amounting to Sh13 billion shillings.