Every Home Will Have A Gas Cylinder In 3 Years- Ruto

President William Ruto has announced that the government will ensure that every household in Kenya will get a cooking gas cylinder in the next three years.

Speaking on Sunday, February 26 during a church service at Muungano grounds in Mpeketoni, Lamu County, Ruto noted that this will ensure that Kenyans will use clean energy as a viable source for their domestic use.

He further reiterated his order to the Ministry of Treasury to remove all taxation imposed on Liquefied Petroleum (LPG) gas in a bid to reduce the price of the commodity.

“In the next three years, we will make sure that every home will have a gas cylinder issued by the government to ensure that we stop using firewood as a source of energy.

“I have already ordered that in the next budget, we will remove all the taxation on gas, to reduce the cost of gas to make it affordable for every household,” he announced.

The Head of State further announced that the government had already issued Ksh25 billion to a contractor to manufacture gas to realise the transition to clean energy.

He further announced plans to scrap the use of wood fuel domestically, warning of the health risks that come with using firewood, which produces smoke.

"We want to prevent all those health issues that are a result of smoke that come because of using wood as fuel. We want our women to use clean energy to cook," he added.

He further issued a warning to illegal traders of cooking gas in the country, noting that their days are numbered for putting the lives of Kenyans at risk.

Speaking on Friday, February 24 during the launch of Taifa Gas in Dongo Kundu, Mombasa County, Ruto had ordered top managers at the Kenya Pipeline Company Limited (KPC) to expand the local terminal storage capacity of LPG gas to make it available countrywide, a move which will provide reservoirs for cheaper LPG gas from Tanzania.

The project that is aimed at lowering the cost of cooking gas in Kenya will see an increase in capacity from 30,000 tonnes to 45,000 tonnes of LPG gas.

Following this, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on February 25 announced that it was coming up with a blueprint which will allow more investments into the LPG gas market in the country. 

"We will facilitate the penetration of LPG in the Country by putting in place frameworks towards the adoption of an Open Tender System (OTS) which will allow competition in the LPG  market leading to improvement of quality and price of the product," EPRA stated in part.

Additionally, EPRA announced that it will collaborate with the Ministry of Interior to get rid of unscrupulous traders in the country who endanger the public through illegal and unsafe practices in the handling of LPG gas.

A cooking gas flame. /FILE