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Come clean on fuel shortage

Monday, April 11th, 2022 01:00 | By
Motorists and motorcyclists scramble for fuel at a Shell petrol station in Nyahururu town. PD/David Macharia

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, a significant festival in the Christian calendar. Palm Sunday ushers in the Easter week and many Kenyans apart from taking the period to mark Christ’s sacrifice to the world travel to meet up with friends and family upcountry.

However, that may not be the case this year. It is not because Christians are marking any different event. It is about the rigours of travelling in this season.

There is no fuel; something very wrong is happening in the petrol industry. For the first time in many years, travel and transportation across the country are slowly grinding to a halt.

The reason is petrol stations have no fuel. When it was first reported weeks ago, two things stuck out: The government was holding subsidy money in billions owed to the sellers. The second reason was that the same sellers want fuel reviews to be done twice a month for price predictability and ease of restocking.

On the first issue, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed an Sh34 billion payment to the dealers as a fuel subsidy. On the second issue, the government said fuel pricing and restocking is not something that can be done overnight as a result negotiations were to be undertaken to reach a middle ground so that both the dealers and government can have a suitable environment to conduct business.

But lo and behold, hardly a week has passed then there is no fuel at the pumps. This reeks of sabotage or arm twisting by either the dealers or the government. These responsible for the storage of the petrol say there is enough stock to last the country a month.

It, therefore, behoves that pumps are dry and no one seems to know why. If the stations are hoarding the commodity they should be called out. Part of any company’s social responsibility is meeting the requirements of one’s public in this case motorists.

It would be sinful if the station owners for whatever reason can hoard fuel. Equally, it would be irresponsible of the government to not meet its end of the bargain and pay subsidy money in time. Indeed, why place a subsidy and not meet the amount? Vehicles are stalling on roads because drivers feel they might get fuel at the next pump only for the cars to run dry.

This is not only inconvenient but also frustrating. Government and the dealers should come out clean on what I’d happening. A country cannot be run on guesswork and unfulfilled promises.

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