A Kenyan court has permitted the director of public prosecutions (DPP) to revise charges filed a decade ago against four senior executives from Triton Petroleum Company Limited and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), linked to a multi-billion-shilling oil fraud that caused significant losses to KCB Group.
The case centers on Triton, whose managing director Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani remains in the UK, which secured a Sh1.2 billion loan from KCB. The company allegedly mismanaged petroleum products worth billions of shillings without the lender’s approval, according to court records.
Senior principal magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot granted the DPP’s request to amend charges against Triton employees Julius Kilonzo, Collins Otieno, and Mahendra Pathak, as well as KPC official Benedict Mutua, who faces six counts of abuse of office and neglect of duty. The magistrate emphasized the legal right to amend charges before a verdict is delivered.
The court ordered the suspects to consult legal counsel ahead of the trial’s resumption on March 19. Magistrate Cheruiyot noted the case began in 2009 and urged completion by June 2019, citing the 10-year statute of limitations. He directed the DPP to present remaining witnesses between March 19 and 21.
The defendants are accused of stealing 318,656 metric tonnes of jet fuel valued at Sh36.5 million, 2,634,687 tonnes of automobile gas oil worth Sh284.5 million, and 12,782 tonnes of another fuel valued at Sh799.9 million from KCB’s assets between April 2008 and September 2008 at Mombasa’s Kipevu Oil Storage Facility. All six defendants deny allegations of unauthorized disposal of oil products.
