Museveni busts fuel mafia at Ministry of Energy, blames price hike on them

President Museveni has blamed the hike in fuel prices on a cartel of officials at the Ministry of Energy, who he said have been conniving with middlemen in Kenya to sell to Uganda fuel products at exorbitant prices, thus costing taxpayers trillions of shillings per year.

Museveni, who made the remarks in a statement issued on Sunday, November 5, 2023, said that Uganda has been importing 2.5 billion litres of fuel per year valued at 2 billion dollars.

“I have a number of issues to share with you. Let me start with the kuseerwa (being overcharged) for the petroleum products from abroad. When we came into government, we assumed that the civil servants would deal with money, administration, procurement, etc., and we would deal with policy, ideology, strategy, security, etc. However, in a number of cases, these wonderful people really let down their country. Take the issue of the importation of petroleum products. Uganda imports petroleum products of the magnitude of 2.5 billion litres per annum valued at about $2 billion,” the statement read in part.

He added, “Without my knowledge, our wonderful people were buying this huge quantity of petroleum products from middlemen in Kenya. A whole country is buying from middlemen in Kenya or anywhere else! Amazing, but true. Why not buy from the refineries abroad and transport through Kenya and Tanzania, cutting out the cost created by middlemen? Those involved were not bothered by these issues. A few years ago, I got this information from whistleblowers. I handed the matter to Minister Kituttu to handle. About a year ago, I got to know that the matter was never handled. When I studied the issue, I discovered that we lose so much by buying through the middlemen.”

According to the statement, the middlemen in Kenya have been selling one barrel of diesel for 118 dollars, compared to the 83 dollars set by bulk suppliers or refineries. A barrel of petrol has been going for $97.5 on the middlemen side compared to the $61.5 price set by bulk suppliers or refineries. A barrel of kerosene has been going for 114 dollars on the middlemen side, compared to the 79 dollars set by bulk or refineries.

Museveni assured Ugandans that fuel prices will go down after the issue has been resolved and said that his Kenyan counterpart, President William Ruto, has since embarked on solving the issue on his side.

“I can assure the Inland East Africans of competitive petroleum products, free of distributions caused by middlemen. The whole of Uganda, North-Western Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Western Kenya, South Sudan, and the Eastern DRC will benefit.”

The President said the government of Uganda has contracted bulk and refinery supplies to supply Uganda with oil products at a cheaper price.