Dominic Wabala
10 November 2009
Nairobi — Police are searching for a Kiambu businessman over the theft of oil drilling pipes worth Sh100 million.
The pipes, which belong to a Chinese oil drilling company, were destined for Harbaswein in North Eastern Province when they were stolen.
Three of the trader's accomplices were arrested by detectives from Kiambu Police at the 'Animal Farm' in Kiambu's Muchatha area where some of the drilling pipes were recovered.
It is feared that the drilling exercise by a Chinese oil exploration company within Harbaswein may stall until another consignment is shipped into the country from Japan.
According to Mr Hussein Ali of Allied Transporters, his firm was hired to transport 90 forty-foot drilling pipes from Mombasa to Harbaswein.
He said one of the company's clerks sought the services of a transporter to ferry the heavy drilling pipes to North Eastern which left Mombasa aboard two trucks on November 5.
However, the truck drivers who knew the pipes were destined for Harbaswein became suspicious when they were ordered by a broker to offload the pipes at Muchatha in Kiambu. They alerted the transporter in Mombasa two days later.
"The pipes are worth about Sh100 million and were being transported to Harbaswein where a Chinese oil company is prospecting for oil. We hired trucks to transport the 90 pipes from Mombasa but the crew later called us and informed us that they had been ordered to offload the pipes in Karuri. When we went to the place we found some of the pipes had been cut into pieces. This is a big loss to the company and the country because another set of drilling pipes have to be imported," Mr Ali said.
Mr Ali said he reported the matter to Karuri police station but claimed the officers were reluctant to visit the scene and only did so after the intervention of a senior police officer based at Vigilance house.
Police officers from Karuri police station visited the farm six hours later only to find 50 of the drilling pipes has already been transferred to an unknown location.
Only 40 pipes some of which had been cut into smaller pieces were recovered.
Karuri OCS Isaac Kasembeli who was at the station said the investigation was being handled by the Kiambu DCIO.
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