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Judiciary officers, Police and Energy Regulation Commission officials hold an open court session at an illegal fuel depot near Eveready in Nakuru Town. The court ordered over 5, 000 liters of adulterated fuel and the makeshift go-down destroyed. Energy CS Charles Keter recently said Kenya had lost its regional fuel market due to adulteration. Refined petroleum, which forms 13 per cent of Kenya’s total exports, is the country’s third largest export product after tea and cut flowers.[File,Standard]
Kenya risks sliding back into an era of widespread fuel adulteration as the government’s heavy subsidy on kerosene opens up a price gap of more than Sh90 per litre with diesel, reviving incentives for rogue dealers to blend the cheaper fuel into transport fuels for huge profits.
This is amid calls for the government to consider redistributing the heavy subsidy it gave to kerosene to cover the other products, which could bring the cost of the three products whose prices are regulated to under Sh200 per litre.
The latest pump price review pushed diesel in Nairobi to a historic Sh242.92 per litre and super petrol to Sh214.25, while kerosene remained at about Sh152.78 under an aggressive subsidy programme aimed at cushioning low-income households.
