Nairobi, April 4 -- Many murmured that it was inconsistent with transit protocols to insist on Uganda buying its oil products from Kenyan traders.

But the latest decision by Kenya to facilitate Uganda to directly import petroleum products from offshore sources is a relief, considering Kenya's mandate is to provide efficient transit capacity for all goods, including oil, and to make a return on transit infrastructure investment.

I was in the Esso Kenya team that in 1978 participated in negotiating the original Transport and Storage (T&S) Agreement with the newly established Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). The operating model was that the seven Kenyan multinational oil companies would be products "handling agents" for their Ugandan counterp...