On oil prices; this is the truth we must confront. The government is walking a tightrope. It can artificially suppress fuel prices to buy temporary peace on the streets, but this will not guarantee long-term structural damage to our economy. In the calculus of state survival, we must weigh between a painful price at the pump and a bankrupt nation.
Begin with the most basic fact in this debate, the one that almost no political voice is acknowledging: Kenya is a price taker. We import virtually all our petroleum. The price of crude is set in Rotterdam, in Dubai, on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange futures market. No act of Parliament, no Finance Minister’s statement, no public protest or demonstrations can change that number by a single cent.
