Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has publicly turned on the government-to-government fuel importation arrangement he once backed alongside President William Ruto, describing it as a “middle scheme” that is said to have swindled Ugandan taxpayers out of billions of shillings over the past two years.
Speaking at a public function, Museveni told his audience that Kampala had quietly begun pulling back from the Kenya-brokered oil supply arrangement after intelligence reportedly showed that middlemen embedded in the deal were inflating landing costs for petroleum products shipped through the Kenyan pipeline system into Uganda. He is reported to have said Ugandan motorists and businesses had for months been absorbing costs that had little to do with the actual price of crude on the international market.
The government-to-government model was unveiled with fanfare in 2023 as a way to cut out costly middlemen in fuel importation and stabilise pump prices across the region. Ruto had at the time championed it as a shrewd piece of economic diplomacy that would benefit both Nairobi and its neighbours. Museveni’s remarks now suggest that promise has curdled into a source of regional friction, with Kampala apparently moving to renegotiate or exit its side of the arrangement.
The comments landed hard in Nairobi’s political circles. Opposition-aligned politicians seized on the remarks as vindication of long-standing claims that the scheme had been captured by well-connected brokers, with some now demanding that Parliament open an inquiry into who benefited from the arrangement and how much Kenyan and Ugandan consumers may have overpaid. Officials close to the deal have not yet issued a detailed rebuttal, though the matter is expected to dominate discussion in both capitals in the coming days.
For ordinary consumers across the region, the dispute raises uncomfortable questions about how fuel prices are set and who ultimately profits from cross-border energy arrangements that were sold as cost-saving measures. Analysts say the fallout could complicate broader East African Community efforts to harmonise energy policy, at a moment when both governments are already managing separate domestic pressures over the cost of living.
The Post will continue following developments as officials in Nairobi and Kampala respond to Museveni’s remarks.