Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli has urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to move fast and suspend the revised fuel prices announced by the Energy Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA).
In a press statement on Monday, March 15, Atwoli expressed his displeasure at EPRA’s recommendation which has seen Super Petrol retail at Kshs.122.81, Diesel at Kshs.107.66 and Kerosene at Kshs.97.85 in Nairobi.
"COTU requests that His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta, also, urgently intervenes by either issuing a fiat suspending some of the taxes and levies on fuel or by calling EPRA to order.
“The president should call for the audit of the entire ecosystem around the energy sector and save Kenyans from cartels that have hijacked the energy sector in Kenya,” the statement read.
He also warned about the possibility of social unrest unless Parliament creates laws to safeguard Kenyans from high fuel prices occasioned by extra taxation.
“It would interest the public to know that it only costs Ksh 49.84 to import a litre of petrol from the Middle East while an average Kenyan has to pay an extra Ksh 73.97 for every litre of petrol purchased.
“These obnoxious and ridiculous amounts in taxes and levies paid by struggling Kenyan workers have been occasioned by the fact that Parliament has failed to safeguard their interests even as primitive institutions like EPRA continue to punish workers without ceasing,” Atwoli said.
The COTU boss accused EPRA of being unaware that a change in fuel prices has a domino effect on the prices of consumer goods because fuel is used in the manufacturing and production of goods consumed by every Kenyan household on a daily basis.
He noted that Kenyans had suffered enough as a result of Covid-19 considering many lives and livelihoods were destroyed.
The price hike comes even as the government announced that the Petroleum Development Levy Fund had accumulated Ksh 10 billion by February 2021.
The funds were meant to protect consumers from volatility in fuel prices.
Volatility is measured as the expected change in the price of oil in either increase or decrease. It is aligned with the supply and demand for oil. Oil prices have been stabilising post-Covid-19. However, suppliers said that the demand is still low.
