Museveni: Kenyan senator revealed middlemen in oil deal, prompting withdrawal

Museveni said he was unaware that Uganda was sourcing petroleum through Kenyan intermediaries until the senator raised the issue with him.

“The Republic of Uganda was buying petroleum products through middlemen in Kenya. Can you imagine that? And the person who woke me up first was a senator from Kenya,” Museveni said.

He was speaking on Thursday, September 17, 2026, during the groundbreaking ceremony for a 320-million-litre petroleum storage terminal in Mpigi District, Uganda.

Museveni said the revelation prompted him to question Ugandan officials responsible for petroleum procurement and later seek alternative ways of sourcing fuel directly from bulk suppliers.

He criticised government technocrats for failing to identify what he described as an unnecessarily costly procurement arrangement.

According to figures presented during the ceremony, Uganda was paying a premium of $118 per metric tonne for diesel under the previous arrangement, compared with $83 under its current arrangement with Vitol and Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC).

For petrol, the premium fell from $97.50 to $61.50 per metric tonne, while that of aviation fuel fell from $114.25 to $79.25, according to the figures cited by Museveni and Uganda's Permanent Secretary for Energy Irene Batebe.

Museveni said the cost differences convinced him that the arrangement had to end.

“So that's when I had to come in and say, this must end. And it ended,” he said.

Uganda subsequently moved to give UNOC a greater role in directly importing petroleum products.

In 2024, Uganda had sought to end its reliance on Kenyan oil marketing companies and allow UNOC to directly import fuel through Kenya. The move initially triggered a dispute over licensing and access to Kenya's petroleum infrastructure.

Kenya and Uganda later reached an agreement allowing UNOC to import petroleum products through Kenya and use the country's infrastructure. The arrangement involved the Port of Mombasa and the Kenya Pipeline network.

Museveni did not identify the Kenyan senator whom he said alerted him to the use of middlemen.

Kenya's G-to-G framework, introduced in 2023, was designed to secure petroleum supplies through government-owned suppliers in the Gulf.