Deputy President William Ruto has challenged the government to address what he termed as an artificial fuel crisis, linking the ongoing shortage to the works of “cartels and state barons”.
He demanded full disclosure of oil marketers who have benefited from the fuel subsidy, claiming that some of the funds meant for the programme had been diverted.
The DP said the high fuel prices are unprecedented and are not due to ordinary market responses to global crude oil price dynamics.
“This is the result of collusion between monopolistic cartels and economic saboteurs on one hand and oblivious, reckless, insensitive and incompetent public officials on the other,” the DP said during a briefing at his Karen residence Monday.
Conflict of interest
He said the current state of affairs is a clear manifestation of the vestiges of conflict of interest and state capture that he claimed is now pervasive in all sectors of the economy.
“Insatiable greed and corruption is driving us over the cliff. Kenyans want an end to this issue of conflict of interest and state capture,” Dr Ruto said.
He questioned the whereabouts of Petroleum Development Fund’s Sh39 billion meant for the fuel subsidy programme.
He claimed that the state had diverted the funds to debt servicing and infrastructure development without the approval of the National Assembly.
Import quotas
The DP also demanded that the Ministry of Energy lists the import quotas that have been allocated to specific oil marketers over the last one year.
“The Petroleum Products (Taxes and Levies (Amendment) Bill, 2021), whose passage has been frustrated, should be processed in parliament as a matter of national emergency to help address the fuel shortage crisis,” he said.
Dr Ruto was accompanied by Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi, former National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale, Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika and a host of Kenya Kwanza Alliance leaders.
He said the country is in collective anguish and economic distress, adding that the devastating effects of the current economic crisis is now manifest in the artificial fuel shortage and skyrocketing prices of basic food items.
“Millions of Kenyans are witnessing in bewildered agony as fuel pumps run dry and queues grow longer due to this artificial shortage which has already disrupted the transport sector. Kenyans are now forced to dig deeper into their pockets for bus fare and boda boda operators are being driven out of business. The skyrocketing prices of food items have pushed the cost of living beyond the reach of millions of Kenyans. Many farmers have failed to plant because the price of fertiliser has moved from Sh3,000 to a high of Sh7,000 per 50kg bag,” he said.
Fertiliser price down
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya over the weekend announced a reduction of the price of fertiliser to Sh2,800 per 50 kg bag, but with the condition that only registered farmers will benefit from it, and with a cap of only 20 bags each.
The earlier price, the DP noted, was beyond the reach of most farmers during this planting season.
“It thus means that this year’s harvest will be dismal, further compounding the problem of food security in the country.”
Dr Ruto faulted the government and the Ministry of Agriculture for engaging in “public relations stunts” in the fertiliser subsidy programme.
“This is not only ridiculous but absurd. How do you make a farmer who needs 1,000 bags queue for hours to only get 10 bags in a widely publicised launch?” he asked.
On the fuel shortage, he said hospitals that rely on fuel to maintain life support equipment are equally in a crisis.
“The government of Kenya knows that millions of households cannot cope with these prices. The largest casualties of this crisis are the vulnerable.”
“In the midst of the people’s loud cries of agony, the silence of all concerned government ministries is deafening and their inaction is snowballing into a national catastrophe.”
He said the National Treasury and the ministries of Energy, Petroleum and Agriculture should address the underlying issues as a matter of urgency.
He questioned why there has not been there any fertiliser subsidy allocation in the budget in the last three years, including in last week’s supplementary estimates where “Kenya Kwanza MPs’ attempts to allocate money for subsidy were frustrated”.
Missed priorities
He accused the government of missing its priorities by simply being preoccupied with issues of “BBI reggae and Azimio jingle bells and whistles”.
“This tone-deafness, greed and callous indifference must stop. We therefore call on the National Treasury to account for all the diversions of funds out of the Petroleum Development Fund and to restore the fuel subsidy mechanism forthwith. The Treasury must rise to its constitutional accountability and live up to the Public Finance Management Act. Failure to do the right thing will convert the National Treasury into a cog in state capture and corruption that will destroy our country,” the DP said.
“We demand that public officials responsible listen to the agonised cries of millions of suffering Kenyans and abandon their exclusive and destructive subservience to cartels and the barons of state capture and do something about the rapidly deepening economic crisis.”
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