Two arrested as illegal fuel siphoning syndicate is busted in Mlolongo

By Kimani Mbugua

Police are presently holding two suspects over a syndicate said to have been illegally siphoning fuel from the Kenya Pipeline Company main line in Mlolongo.

According to area police, they were alerted of suspicious activity by residents in the neighborhood leading to the shocking discovery of the syndicate that has been stealing thousands of litres of fuel from KPC.

The criminals have reportedly been siphoning the fuel through an underground tunnel running from the KPC wayleave to a concrete tank.

Engineers and technical staff from Kenya Pipeline were forced to use portable tanks to collect the fuel that was already siphoned from the pipeline, marking off the area to prevent any spillage or fire incident.

According to a statement to newsrooms, the team from KPC excavated the area and disconnected the illegal connection from the pipeline and evacuated the recovered product to a Nairobi terminal.

“KPC wishes to assure the public that the incident has, is and will not in any way affect the product availability both in the country and the region. We have sufficient stocks to last the period we will be offline,” read the statement.

One of the suspects in the racket however escaped and is presently being sought after by police.