NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 15 –The Orange Democratic Movement party has asked the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority to revoke newly announced fuel prices which has seen the price of petrol in Nairobi leap by Sh8.
ODM, in a statement issued on Sunday following the EPRA review, said Kenyans were already overtaxed in hard economic times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase in fuel prices would exponentially increase the cost of living.
“Increasing the price of diesel just as the farming and planting season sets in is nothing but diabolic,” ODM stated in a statement directed at the State agency tasked with regulating fuel prices.
The price adjustment is a second similar increase in a month, the EPRA having effected a similar change on February 15.
In its monthly review on Sunday, EPRA significantly increased the cost of petrol, diesel and kerosene by Sh7.63, Sh5.75 and Sh5.41 respectively in Nairobi.
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, said the new fuel review could have a negative impact on the delivery of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big IV Agenda.
“Silence on our part at this time will amount to complicity, and we therefore unequivocally state that we are opposed to this increase in the price of fuel. We demand that this decree is rescinded before it becomes effective,” he said.
The Authority said the price changes which are inclusive of an 8 per cent Value Added Tax had taken into account the weighted average cost of imported refined petroleum products.
But Sifuna argued that the increase is not the right time as the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to job losses, collapsing industries and winding up Small and Medium Enterprises.
“The pandemic has been a tragedy for the already heavily-taxed population. Central to this tragedy has been the cost of energy, which has an impact on every facet of our lives,” he said.
