Kenya orders deportation of Rubis CEO for East Africa Jean-Christian Bergeron

Bergeron’s deportation papers were also signed after a meeting between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Energy CS Monica Juma over the acute shortage of fuel in the country.

According to Nation, the CEO is accused of economic sabotage, a serious allegation that carries a maximum sentence of ten years in jail and a fine of Sh1 million.

Rubis Energy CEO for East Africa Jean-Christian Bergeron Pulse Live Kenya

Sources reveal that the government blames the oil firm for fueling the shortage because it controls such a large portion of the local market.

According to the latest data by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Rubis is the third-largest oil firm in Kenya, controlling about 8.6% of the local market.

The company is accused of blackmailing the government by requesting larger compensation, despite the fact that a large quantity of its fuel was said to have been imported before the oil prices shot up.

This action comes just days after the announced measures to be taken against oil marketers behind the scarcity of the commodity.

Energy CS Dr Monica Juma Pulse Live Kenya

In a statement by EPRA CEO Daniel Kiptoo, and copied to Energy CS Monica Juma, the authority said that the shortage has been worsened after some oil marketers exported more than the stipulated amount of fuel.

Kiptoo explained that the authority had gone through data spanning 4 weeks and established that some of the oil marketers were in violation of the law.

“The EPRA has analyzed the daily petroleum loadings over the past 4 weeks and noted that a number of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have in the period under review given priority to export loadings while the local market was left to suffer intermittent supply,” read an excerpt of the statement.

As a result, the authority has sanctioned the affected oil marketers by introducing a raft of measures that will be implemented in the next three months.

EPRA resolved to slash the capacity of the OMCs which increased their transit volumes over and above their normal quota during the supply crisis period.

The slashed capacity will be given to oil marketers who increased their local volumes without giving priority to their export volumes.