Kenya Gov’t Promises to Address the Ongoing Fuel Crisis within 72 Hours

The government has promised to address the ongoing fuel crisis in the country within the next 72 hours.

Energy and Petroleum CS Monica Juma on Thursday assured Kenyans that there are sufficient fuel stocks in the country and blamed some oil marketing companies for creating an artificial shortage by either hoarding the commodity or diverting it to neighboring countries.

Oil marketers, she said, were also hoarding stock in anticipation of a spike in fuel prices announced by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on Thursday.

While vowing to punish anyone behind the fuel crisis, CS Juma called for calm among motorists across the country as the government works to stabilize the fuel supply.

“I have sanctioned a process of reallocating the petroleum import capacity, the companies who sold above their normal local quarter during the crisis period will benefit from additional capacity while those who sold less, will have their respective capacities reduced,” said Juma.

She further announced that the government will allow the movement of oil tankers on a privileged basis within the next three days in order to bring the crisis to an end.

“We are taking measures to privilege the movement of fuel so that we can stock up across the country. We are going to allowed the movement of tankers on a privileged basis starting today and hope we can do this within the next 72 hours to stabilize the supply across the country.”

“I am also calling upon all retailing outlets to operate on a 24-hour basis so that we do not have Kenyans waking up in the middle of the night waking up to go and fuel,” CS Juma added.

On Thursday, EPRA announced a hike in petrol, diesel, and kerosene prices by Sh9.90 across the board, attributed to increased landed costs of all three products.

As a result, the cost of petrol in Nairobi is expected to hit Sh144.62 from Friday while diesel and kerosene costs will cost Sh125.50 and Sh113.44 per litre respectively.