Embattled Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) Managing Director Macharia Irungu has taken his gloves off and vowed to fight back against President William Ruto’s administration, which he blames for the current woes facing him.
Last week, the KPC board declined to renew Dr Irungu’s contract, ending his three-year tenure at the state corporation.
In a letter dated 13th January 2023, it said that the three-year contract that he signed on December 2, 2019, was terminated because he did not express interest in extending or renewing it.
But interestingly, records show that the former board led by the then chairperson Rita Okuthe had extended Dr. Irungu’s contract in August 2021.
Ms Okuthe noted that Dr Irungu’s term had been adjusted to five years renewable subject to performance, mandatory retirement age and the guidelines governing the appointment of accounting officers to the state corporations.
Going by this statement, he was supposed to continue serving.
Running out of options and eager to retain his position, Dr Irungu vowed to take the battle to President Ruto’s doorstep and filed a case challenging his ouster at the High Court.
In a directive issued on Monday, the court urged both parties to internally resolve the stalemate caused by the contract extension drama, and if no settlement is reached, the case will proceed on February 7.
This timeline of events fits perfectly into Dr Irungu’s plan to frustrate KPA through a slow and incessant court process that risks crippling operations at the state corporation.
Dr Irungu took over at KPC in January 2020, replacing Mr Hudson Andambi who had served as the acting Managing Director since December 2018 following the arrest of former MD Joe Sang and other top managers on allegations of corruption.
At the time, insiders deduced that he was placed at KPC as a proxy of the Kenyatta family regime, which sought to clutch a tighter grip on the petroleum industry.
Two years later in 2022, investigators linked Dr Irungu to the highly guarded smuggling of 30,000 metric tonnes of petroleum into the country by Gulf Energy Limited.
The oil heist also incriminated top government officials in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining suspected to have offered a safe veil of shield to an invisible but well-connected team code-named “elite group” to facilitate the clearance of the consignment at the Port of Mombasa.
During his tenure at KPC, employees often heard Dr. Irungu bragging that he enjoyed protection from the first family.
It was him that single-handedly steered the corporation to a dark path of corruption.
Some argue that top State House officials influenced his recent troubles to punish him for the sins of the previous administration.
Prior to his appointment, Dr Irungu was the Managing Director at Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation.
He has nearly three decades of experience in the sector and has also served as a commissioner of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
Dr Irungu took over after a rough year characterized by leadership wrangles that saw several middle-level staff forced to take up acting roles following the arrest of senior managers over the alleged loss of public funds.
