On July 28, Dr. Ramathan Ggoobi, Secretary to the Treasury, and Irene Pauline Bateebe, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, took seats on the Board of Kenya Pipeline Company PLC.
For a country that has spent decades receiving fuel through Kenyan infrastructure, this is a quiet but consequential reversal.
Uganda is no longer just a customer at the end of the pipe. It is now, in part, an owner of it.
Far from being merely ceremonial, the appointments follow the Uganda National Oil Company’s acquisition of a 20.15 percent stake in KPC, roughly 3.66 billion shares, secured after KPC’s oversubscribed initial public offering earlier this year.
That single transaction cut Kenya’s government holding to 35 percent and handed Uganda genuine leverage over decisions on tariffs, storage and pipeline expansion.
Ggoobi brings macroeconomic and fiscal weight to the boardroom. Bateebe, a UK-trained petroleum engineer with more than 20 years’ experience in Uganda’s energy sector, brings technical command of the sector– right from downstream to upstream industries.
Together they give Uganda both the numbers and the know-how at the table where regional fuel decisions are made.
KPC itself has quite a history. Incorporated in 1973, it now runs over 1,700 kilometres of pipeline and supplies not just Kenya but Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, eastern Congo and northern Tanzania.
It has grown from a domestic utility into the backbone of East Africa’s fuel supply chain, and is now valued above $1.3 billion after its NSE listing.
That listing, and Uganda’s stake within it, marks a shift from KPC as a purely Kenyan asset to a genuinely regional one.
For Uganda, none of this is abstract. Landlocked and historically dependent on Mombasa-fed imports, the country has always needed secure, affordable passage for its fuel.
Board representation means Uganda can now speak directly on transit costs and capacity planning rather than simply absorbing them.
It also arrives at a pivotal moment, as Uganda edges toward commercial oil production through Lake Albert to be evacuated through the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to Tanga in Tanzania.
Two pipeline systems, one built and one under construction, are becoming central to how the region prices, moves and eventually processes its own fuel.
That last point is critical. Kenya and Uganda are already discussing a proposed Dangote-led refinery, likely sited at Lamu, with capacity near 700,000 barrels a day.
Its biggest question is crude sourcing, and Uganda’s Lake Albert oil sits close to that conversation, even as EACOP pulls that same crude toward export markets in Tanzania.
Ggoobi and Bateebe, given their command of treasury allocations and energy policy, are now positioned inside the spaces that will help decide how that tension resolves.
Whether the region chooses export revenue or local refining capacity will shape East African energy independence for a generation.
Fortunately, their presence on KPC’s Board gives Uganda lots of mileage in regard to how our oil resources would benefit all Ugandans.
