Post: Evacuation notice given to illegal squatters within KPRL premises

Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary, Opiyo Wandayi has announced his staunch commitment to resolve the ongoing safety challenge at the Kipevu Oil Terminal storage facility and the adjacent Kenya Pipeline Refinery Limited (KPRL) storage facility in Port Reitz where approximately 5 acres of land has been illegally invaded and occupied by squatters.He stressed that the illegal occupation poses a significant safety risk to both the people living there and the two facilities.Speaking at the KPRL offices in Mombasa during his familiarization tour where he was accompanied by his Principal Secretary, Mohammed Liban, the CS said that he is well informed about the court order requiring the residents to evacuate the place and that they are going to work very closely with the County Government of Mombasa, local leadership in Changamwe and the Ministry to sign the mechanism of relocating the people to another place.However, he said that if that does not happen, they are under a moral and legal obligation as a go vernment to ensure that the place is cleared of inhabitants to both save their lives and protect the facilities.'If any incidents happen at the Kipevu then a lot of faculties will happen and if anything happens from the residency that would cause damage to the two facilities, we would incur a terrible loss as a country,' Wandayi cautioned.'The main culprits are the big fish who have gone ahead to put up rental houses on that piece of land. These are people with means to relocate and do their business elsewhere so start arranging to relocate, the innocent tenants will find alternative places to rent houses,' he reiterated.Highlighting his familiarization tour, The CS noted that it had been a productive visit. He noted that he is keen to have a better understanding of what goes on so far as the infrastructure of petroleum and its products are concerned in the Coast Region.'We are now at the last stage of amalgamating the KPRL with KPC where eventually the management of KPRL will be fully taken over by K PC for purposes of building synergy and efficiency,' he highlighted.Wandayi added that KPC is now the company in charge of logistics; storage, and transportation of all petroleum products for the country.'The visit here has been wonderful and the infrastructure being run by KPC is part of our wider strategy to build capacity to handle more petroleum and its products, not only for Kenya but the entire region,' Wandayi said.He highlighted that the Rwanda market is soon coming back to Kenya and that it will go a long way in furthering our objective of capturing the region because currently, he said, Kenya serves Uganda through a different model, DRC partly and South Sudan.Wandayi stated that under the G2G management, a lot of elaborate mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that there is a steady supply of fuel in the Country, for both the Country's use and the Region.The CS visited the petroleum handling facilities in Mombasa including, KPC, Gapco, the Kipevu Oil Terminal, and KPRL. He is also se t to visit the recently finished LPG handling facility (Lake Gas) in Kilifi.Source: Kenya News Agency