Uhuru Maintains Fuel Prices

The government has announced that fuel prices will remain unchanged for the next one month.

This is in line with a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta, in a statement dated Thursday, July 14 and signed by State house spokesperson, Kanze Dena.

The price of Super Petrol will remain at Ksh159.12 per litre while Diesel will remain at Ksh140 per litre. Kerosene will remain at Ksh127.94 per litre.

“It is notified that His Excellency the President has today authorized an additional fuel subsidy of Ksh16.675 billion, so as to cushion Kenyans from a further increase in fuel prices.

“With today’s presidential action, diesel will continue to retail at Ksh140.00, petrol at Ksh159.12 and Kerosene at Ksh127.94. Without such State interventions, the pump prices would have been Ksh193.64 for diesel, Ksh209.95 for petrol and Ksh181.13 for Kerosene," read the state House statement in part.

The President added that due to the caring nature of the Jubilee administration, it was doing all it can to protect Kenyans from the rampantly high cost of living.

"As a caring government, we will continue to roll out similar actions so as to provide further direct relief to all Kenyan families and establish the necessary safeguards for protecting Kenyan consumers from further increases in the cost of living," he stated.

The review comes as crude oil prices had begun to go down across the world but industry players warned motorists that they may have to continue buying expensive fuel till mid-August before the drop is applied.

According to the latest Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) weekly bulletin, international oil prices declined during the week ending July 7, after the OPEC+ agreed to increase monthly overall production.

“Murban oil prices dropped to USD 105.4 per barrel on July 7, compared to USD 118.74 per barrel on June 30,” CBK noted.

In March, crude oil hit a 13-year high of USD130 in March amid increased demand which did not match supply.

The increase in global oil prices has seen Kenya's fuel prices steadily increase since the beginning of 2022 and were set to go up further with the government's initial plan of withdrawing a fuel subsidy. For instance, the price of fuel in February 2022 was as follows: super petrol, diesel and kerosene being Ksh129.72, Ksh110.60 and Ksh103.54 respectively, which have been in place since October 2021.

In March, the government hiked the cost of fuel per litre by Ksh5 and resulted in petrol retailing at Ksh134.72, diesel at Ksh115.60 and kerosene at Ksh103.54.

In April, EPRA had increased the maximum price of all fuel products by Ksh9.90, and they went up further by Ksh5.50 per litre in May following a subsidy of Ksh26 for super, Ksh30 for diesel and Ksh50 for Kerosene.

The National Treasury, however, said last month that starting July, it will gradually withdraw the subsidy which could mean Kenyans paying more for fuel for their cars.

Fuel prices update for between July 15, 2022 and August 14, 2022. /VIRALTEAKE

In the June price review, EPRA increased the prices of fuel products by Ksh9 per litre with super retailing at Ksh159.12, diesel at Ksh150.12 and kerosene at Ksh118.94. 

In five months, the cost of fuel has shot up by an average of Ksh30.