Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir says that the hands of the government are tied and hence cannot do anything to mitigate the skyrocketing cost of fuel.
CS Chirchir while appearing before the National Assembly’s Energy Committee on Friday, explained that the spike has been caused by an increase in the international landing costs of the commodity leaving the country with no option but to scale up its prices in a bid to meet the price cost.
“We are dealing with several governments and the suppliers of these products. We are likely to be going to even harder times,” he stated.
“There is nothing much we can do about it. It is just unfortunate that we do not have our own products,” said Chirchir.
His statement comes in the wake of a statement by Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria who hinted that Kenyans should prepare to dig deeper in their pockets as fuel prices will increase by Sh10 every month until February next year, amid the rising cost of global crude prices.
“Global Crude Prices are on an upward trajectory. For planning purposes expect pump prices to go up by Ksh 10 every month till February,” he posted on his X app account.
The expected rise in prices will hurt Kenyans, who are already battling with high fuel prices.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) revised fuel prices upwards by Sh16.96 for petrol, diesel (Sh21.32), and kerosene (Sh33.13). This means that a litre of petrol, diesel, and kerosene will now retail at Sh211.64, Sh200.99, and Sh202.61 per litre in Nairobi.
“The average landed cost of imported Super Petrol increased by 4.80% from US$739.21 per cubic metre in July 2023 to US$774.67 per cubic metre in August 2023; Diesel increased by 12.52% from US$701.99 per cubic metre to US$789.89 per cubic metre while Kerosene increased by 19.79% from US$690.58 per cubic metre to US$827.26 per cubic metre,” EPRA announced yesterday evening.
