President William Ruto announced that the government will be issuing every household in the country with a cooking gas cylinder in the next three years as part of the plan to ensure that Kenyans use clean energy.
Speaking at a thanksgiving service in Lamu County on Sunday, February 26, the head of state further reiterated that the government would remove gas taxation to ensure that gas prices are reduced.
Ruto added that the government had already issued Ksh25 billion to a contractor to manufacture gas as a move towards ensuring the transition to using clean energy.
“In the next three years, we will make sure that every home will have a gas cylinder issued by the government to ensure that we stop using firewood as a source of energy.
“I have already ordered that in the next budget, we will remove all the taxation on gas, to reduce the cost of gas to make it affordable for every household,” Ruto stated.
The head of state further affirmed plans to eliminate the use of wood fuel adding that it posed a health risk to users.
"We want to prevent all those health issues that are a result of smoke that come because of using wood as fuel. We want our women to use clean energy to cook," he added.
Moreover, he issued a warning to unscrupulous cooking gas traders in the country who he stated endangered the lives of the public.
While launching the construction of the Taifa Gas LPG terminal on February 24, Ruto asked the Kenya Pipeline Company Limited (KPC) managers to increase capacity and enable the provision of reservoirs for cheaper LPG gas from Tanzania.
"I have ordered these officials to ensure that we have enough local capacity to store and process this gas in order to save our mothers from dangerous biomass cooking," Ruto stated.
As a result of the President's directive on offering affordable cooking gas, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on February 25, announced plans to develop a framework to allow more players to invest in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry.
"We will facilitate the penetration of LPG in the Country by putting in place frameworks towards the adoption of an Open Tender System, which will allow competition in the LPG market and improve the quality and price of the product," EPRA's statement read in part.
