Kenya Pipeline is not up for sale, Energy and Petroleum CS Opiyo Wandanyi now says, striking the company off the list of state entities that had been earmarked for disposal.
This comes as the government continues with its privatisation agenda targeted mainly at loss-making entities and those with duplicating roles, to tame wastage.
The move that will see up to 200 state enterprises reorganised, with some having private shareholders on boarded, gained momentum after President William Ruto signed into law the Privatisation Bill 2023, in October last year, after it was passed by the National Assembly in September.
Eleven key state corporations, which include the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB), National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK) and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), were on the cards as of this year.
Others are Kenya Seed Company Limited (KSC), Mwea Rice Mills Ltd. (MRM), Western Kenya Rice Mills Limited, New Kenya Cooperative Creameries Limited, Numeric Machining Complex Limited (NMC), Vehicle Manufacturers Limited (KVM) and Rivatex East Africa Limited.
CS Wandayi yesterday however struck off KPC, which falls under his ministry from the list, dimming hopes of the private sector, which had started angling to grab a pie in the refined petroleum products handling company, which serves the Kenyan market and the region.
“The matter of restructuring public operations is in the domain of the public service (Public Service Commission) but having said that, I must emphasise and actually clarify that KPC is not on the table in terms of any plans for privatisation,” the CS told journalists during a familiarisation tour of KPC’s operations, in Nairobi.
Wandayi termed Kenya Pipeline as a strategic institution with “serious national security implications.”
KPC is wholly owned by the government with 99.9 per cent shareholding by the National Treasury and less than 0.1 per cent by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
