Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has identified the late former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo as the Kenyan politician who alerted him to Uganda’s procurement of petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya.
In a statement issued on Sunday, September 20, Museveni said Jirongo brought the matter to his attention around 2019, prompting him to direct then-Energy Minister Irene Muloni to investigate and address the issue.
Museveni said he had not been aware that Uganda was sourcing petroleum products through intermediaries in Kenya rather than directly from refiners and bulk suppliers.
“It was a Kenyan Senator called Jirongo who told me this around 2019. I immediately tasked the then Minister Irene Muloni to sort out that mess,” Museveni said.
Although Museveni referred to Jirongo as a senator, Jirongo was a former Member of Parliament for Lugari and had previously served as a Cabinet minister. He died in a road accident in December 2025.
Museveni also sought to clarify his earlier remarks about Uganda’s petroleum procurement, accusing some Kenyan media outlets of adding details to his comments that he said he had not made.
He said that despite raising the issue in 2019, the procurement arrangement did not change until 2023, when Uganda entered into a new arrangement with global energy company Vitol, which he described as a bulk supplier with refineries in different parts of the world.
According to figures provided by Museveni, the change resulted in lower premiums for petroleum products. He said the premium for diesel fell from US$118 to US$83 per metric tonne, while petrol declined from US$97.50 to US$61.50 per metric tonne. The premium for aviation fuel, he said, fell from US$114.25 to US$79.25 per metric tonne.
Museveni said Uganda was subsequently able to source petroleum products through the new arrangement while continuing to use Kenya’s petroleum infrastructure.
He also credited President William Ruto with supporting Uganda’s transition, saying the Kenyan President “prevailed over some actors in Kenya who were trying to resist” the new arrangement.
Museveni said the Kenyan government subsequently allowed Uganda to pump its petroleum products through the Kenya oil pipeline and granted Uganda a 20.15 per cent shareholding in the pipeline.
“I want to thank H.E. Ruto because he prevailed over some actors in Kenya who were trying to resist. That is how we got our new arrangement,” Museveni said.
The latest remarks come amid renewed scrutiny of petroleum procurement arrangements in Kenya and Uganda, following Museveni’s earlier comments that Uganda had previously bought petroleum products through Kenyan intermediaries.
Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has since defended the country’s Government-to-Government fuel importation framework. Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi said the Kenyan arrangement was introduced in 2023 to address a severe shortage of US dollars that had threatened the country’s fuel supply and wider economy.
The Ministry said international oil companies participating in Kenya’s G-to-G arrangement selected licensed Kenyan oil marketing companies to handle local logistics. The companies initially selected included Gulf Energy, Galana Energies and Oryx Energies Kenya, with One Petroleum, Asharami Synergy and BE Energy subsequently added to the arrangement.
The government has maintained that the local companies were counterparties selected by the international suppliers and that Kenya did not dictate their appointment. It has also defended the arrangement on the basis of fuel security and reduced foreign-exchange pressure.
The differing accounts have placed renewed focus on how petroleum products were procured for Uganda before its 2023 shift to direct sourcing, the role of Kenyan oil companies and intermediaries, and how procurement and logistics costs affected the final price of fuel.
Museveni’s latest statement provides his account of how the issue first came to his attention and credits Jirongo with raising the concern, while Kenya’s Energy Ministry continues to defend its own G-to-G framework as a response to the country’s foreign-exchange and fuel-supply challenges.
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