President Ruto Announces Gov’t Plans to Remove All Taxes on Cooking Gas

President Ruto has pledged to remove all taxes on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in an effort to ensure access to all households at affordable rates. 

The president said the move would also serve to reduce the use of wood fuel, which poses both health and environmental challenges to Kenyans and the country.

“Kila nyumba katika taifa letu la Kenya itakuwa na mtungi wa gas, na tutahakikisha ya kwamba bei ya gas itapungua kwa sababu tutaondoa pia ile kodi yote ambayo imewekwa kwa mambo ya gas so that we can make sure that every household in Kenya has access to gas for cooking, and we can eliminate the use of wood fuel, health challenges, and restore our environment by reducing the number of trees that are being cut for purposes of wood fuel,” he said.

Ruto directed Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir to work on providing Kenyan households with cooking gas and cylinders at subsidized rates within the next three years. 

“Waziri you have the marching orders and you know what you must do so that in three years every household has a subsidized cooking gas, both in terms of cost of the cylinder – we want to see whether we can give the cylinder for free or charge a minimal fee,” Ruto said.

“I also want the ministry to make sure that we eliminate all illegal filling of gas in the country because it is dangerous. So we must get rid of all illegal sellers of gas, we must make sure that we eliminate all illegal filling stations.”

Ruto was speaking on Friday during the launch of the Taifa Gas plant in Dongo Kundu, Mombasa County. Taifa Gas is owned by Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz.

The 30,000 million-ton facility will be the largest gas import and storage facility in East Africa.