Low-Income Kenyans Cry Foul Over Kerosene Price Hikes

A week after the Kenyan government raised kerosene and petrol prices – citing rising international oil prices and the depreciation of the local currency – low-income Kenyans appear to be bearing the brunt.



"My family, like hundreds of other families, use kerosene for cooking," Francis Mwanzia, a father of two in Mathare, one of Nairobi's sprawling slums, told Anadolu Agency.



"With such high prices, we low-paid people face a miserable life," said the 32-year-old watchman.



Last week, Kenya's Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), a 12-member government-owned corporation, raised prices on both petrol and kerosene.



The price of super petrol is up by 1.24 Kenyan shillings, currently standing at 115.86 shillings (roughly $1.30) per liter, while Kerosene prices have risen by 0.99 shillings to stand at 84.12 shillings per liter.



ERC Director-General Fredrick Nyang attributed the price hikes to rising global crude oil prices and the depreciation of the Kenyan shilling.



But Lawrence Kodi, a 24-year-old hotel worker who lives in Kibera, another Nairobi slum, could not care less.



"The majority of people in Kibera use kerosene and firewood," he told AA. "They see electricity as a 'foreign energy'."



The latest figures from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show that kerosene, referred to locally as "paraffin," represents the main fuel for lighting among Kenyan households.



According to the statistics bureau, nearly three quarters of Kenya's 42-million-strong population use kerosene and firewood.



-Careless-



Anjelina Shiundu, for her part, a 28-year-old housewife in Huruma, a residential area east of capital Nairobi, is furious with the ERC.



"It looks like the [energy] commission does not care about ordinary people," the mother of three told AA.



"It's time we did away with this organization, which has enjoyed a monopoly on adjusting prices without considering us, who depend on kerosene for cooking," Shiundu fumed.



Manu Valji, an Indian trader based in Nairobi, pleaded with Kenya's central government to abolish the ERC, because – as he put it – it doesn't care about the average person.



"I use electricity for cooking, but my house servant uses kerosene in his house," he told AA.



"The days of government empowering parastatals to do what they want to do are gone," asserted Valji, in his early fifties.



Mutuku Wanje, a 42-year-old casual laborer who likewise uses kerosene for cooking, had few kind words for the energy commission.



He described the ERC as "a 12-headed serpent that has no mercy for the common person."



"Our legislators know we are suffering, but they can't talk to the commission or take it to task on our behalf," Wanje told AA.



Mary Njeri, a vegetable seller, believes someone – who she declined to name – is using the ERC to satisfy the oil cartels.



"The rich are becoming richer at the expense of the poor," Njeri told AA, "while the poor become poorer because of the commission's unilateral decisions."



But Kenyan economist James Shikwati, president of the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN), attributed the recent energy hikes to the government's desire to raise money.



"If the cost of oil imports have gone up… the government should act fast and adjust oil prices," Shikwati told AA.



He warned that everyday Kenyans would inevitably feel the impact of the recent price hikes.



"We have people who live on [the equivalent of] $1 a day; extremely poor people who rely on paraffin to cook and light their homes," Shikwati asserted.



"These are the people who will suffer from the price increases," he added.



Brian Wanyama, an economy expert at Muliro University in Kakamega west of Nairobi, said skyrocketing oil prices came against the backdrop of preexisting economic hardships in Kenya.



"These hardships have unfortunately been caused by a reduction in the flow of tourists to Kenya and the poor performance of various economic sectors," Wanyama told AA.



"The common person will suffer," he warned. "The increase of fuel prices translates into high cost of goods and services, which will become beyond the reach of the common person."



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