Salasya Warns Mbadi Against Kenya Pipeline Privatisation
The comments came two weeks after the Cabinet, chaired by President William Ruto, decided to have KPC rejoin the privatisation list.
Salasya argued that the success of Safaricom is the exception rather than the norm. He said that the government should not use Safaricom's case as a precedent to dispose of major national properties. Photo/ Courtesy
By Juliet Jerotich
Mumias East MP Peter Salasya has also completely disagreed with the planned privatisation of the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). He blamed the concept on the collapse of numerous state corporations that were taken through a similar exercise in the past.
Addressing Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi in a statement posted on his official X account on Monday, August 11, 2025, Salasya reminded him of the downfall of then-dominant firms such as Telkom Kenya, Mumias Sugar, Rift Valley Railways, and Kenya Airways.
In the opinion of Salasya, such corporations disintegrated as a result of both privatisation and corruption along with bad leadership. “Before any privatisation is undertaken, the spectre of Telkom, Mumias Sugar, Rift Valley Railways, and KQ continues to haunt us; they failed because of corruption and mismanagement,” he posted.
Salasya argued that the success of Safaricom is the exception rather than the norm. He said that the government should not use Safaricom’s case as a precedent to dispose of major national properties. “Safaricom’s success happened to be a rare exception, not the rule,” he said in his message to Mbadi.
The comments came two weeks after the Cabinet, chaired by President William Ruto, decided to have KPC rejoin the privatisation list. The decision was taken in Tuesday, August 29, 2025, Cabinet meeting at State House, Nairobi.
The plan involves disposing of a portion of the government’s shareholding and listing KPC shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The aim, as indicated by the official Cabinet statement, is to reduce the state’s role in running businesses so that the private sector can help drive efficiency, growth, and innovation.
“In approving the re-entry of Kenya Pipeline Company into the privatisation program, the Cabinet gave a greenlight for partial divestment of government shares to enable more general ownership by Kenyans on the Nairobi Securities Exchange,” the statement added.
Salasya warned, however, that without lessons from history, the transition risks destroying a strategic energy asset. He urged the government to be mindful of prioritizing transparency, safeguarding public interest, and exercising proper stewardship before it transfers ownership of such vital infrastructure to the private sector.
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