Embu fuel siphoning cartel blamed for poisoning environment, risking tenants' lives

Some farmers in Embu County have petitioned the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) close down fuel siphoning cartel operating in Makutano town of Mbeere North Constituency, accusing it of poisoning area soil and water as well as putting at risk the lives of hundreds of tenants.

"Big problem is that this fuel siphoning cartel destroy the environment and blue economy since spillage degrades soil and once washed into nearby rivers, contribute to deaths of fish, crocodiles and hippopotamuses as well making irrigation water poisonous to our crops," reads the petition signed by Mr Gitau Warui.

Mr Warui writing on behalf of Mwea Sub-County Small Scale Farmers Association said "the cartel has its central base in Makutano town".

He added that fuel spillage deny both soil and water free aeration hence killing even soil organisms that help in maintaining fertility for production.

"Further, once siphoned, the gangs keep the loot in rooms near rentals and agricultural activities and should a fire break out, the number of casualties and destroyed crops would be distressing," he said.

Private and public trucks' drivers in search of quick bucks allow marauding gangs to siphon fuel from the tanks which ends up being adulterated and sold off to motorists and farmers with water pumping generators, leading to further economic losses through engine knocks for using dirty fuel.

The Town and County Planners Association of Kenya (TCPAK) has warned that nearly all urban centres are sitting time bombs waiting to explode since they harbor clandestine explosion risks.

It said the situation will continue getting worse as the country moves into the future of population explosions in urban centers where by 2050 it is anticipated that urban dwellers will have hit 45 million mark—from the current about 14 million.

“It is not the first time that we are suffering fatal tragedies owing to fuel explosions. We are lucky with fatalities since we are yet to hit a total condensation in urban dwellings. It has numerously happened in the past. We never learnt a lesson. We recently had the Embakasi explosion and most likely we did not learn any lesson and we have moved on,” said the TCPAK Chair Mairura Omwenga.

Mr Omwenga said “nearly all towns in the country host clandestine gas filling stations, fuel storage depots, siphoning cartels, illegal distilleries, paints processing plants…flammables just waiting for the devil to desire sadistic amusement”.

This came as United Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Meru, and Embu road users plying Nairobi-Kenol-Makutano-Sagana road issued a statement last Friday decrying impunity of the Makutano fuel siphoning cartel.

“We are also facing a tragedy. At Makutano town that is at the common border of Machakos, Embu, Kirinyaga, and Embu counties we have a fuel siphoning cartel that on daily basis deals with over 10,000 litres of flammable fuels. Customers transport the fuels in plastic containers using even road transport,” said the joint statement signed by their chairman, Samuel Miriti.

Mr Miriti added that “the siphoned fuels are stored even in residential plots as well as in area garages where there are high human activities with area police and administrators well aware and do nothing”.

Murang’a South Deputy County Commissioner Gitonga Murungi told AVDelta News that “this cartel in Makutano has been very problematic since it has its depots in Embu County boundaries, but risking the lives of road users in our boundaries as well as in Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Machakos”.

Outgoing Mwea Deputy County Commissioner Ms Jane Manene in whose jurisdiction the cartel operates said “I have been asking Makutano Police Station to stop the cartel, but no matter how much we tried we got no success”.

 She said that the actors in the cartel said they were pooling the siphoned fuels for established petrol stations that were properly licensed by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra).

“We wrote to Epra several time,  but they never acted and that is how the area continues to be danger zone where even heat from the sun can make that town erupt into a fireball,” Ms Manene said.

Mr Omwenga said “the regulatory authorities in the country do not keep data for the clandestine industrial activities since some big fish collect rent and protect the illicit cartels”.

He said another danger zone is where the relevant standardisation authorities do not enact quality controls hence exposing families to cooking gas explosions that were poorly packed.

He said that “the only people who know about these clandestine activities waiting to explode on innocent residents are the police, administrators and county governments”.

He said it is only when tragedies happen that the authorities rush out to claim that the establishments were never licensed even when they operated openly for decades.

“Take a case of the Embakasi explosion. The government is now saying that the gas depot was illegal. Yet, the same government was collecting taxes from the owner, receiving water and electricity bills from the owners,” he said.

He added that most likely, the government was collecting house levy from the depot’s employees. But when tragedy came calling, the government for convenience purpose starts running away from its own incubated mess”.

Mr Omwenga said the country is a chronology of nearly daily explosion tragedies since there are no concerted efforts to put in place sound town planning standards that separate flammables from residential estates.

 “Every town has its set aside zone for industries. But the tragedy we have is major since no one implements the planning provisions and we are faced with situations where families reside inside petrol stations, upper floors of gas refilling depots and others storing siphoned fuels under their beds,” he said.

Mr Omwenga said “it is the work of county governments to guide planning in their towns but what we see are units that are not mindful of what happens in residential areas as long as the activities are a source of revenue”.

For the Makutano case, Mr Omwenga said "it is a direct case of police conspiracy to found a criminal enterprise in the midst of innocent people for the love of corrupt gain".