Motorists have dumped their vehicles in search of alternatives owing to the increase in fuel prices as recorded in provisional data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on Monday, April 3.
In the statistics, it was documented that the consumption of fuel, super petrol in particular, dropped from 1.544 million tonnes to 1.508 million tonnes in a year.
Super petrol is mostly used for personal cars. Notably, the price of the crucial commodity was among the most affected with a litre retailing at a high of Ksh179.3.
Following the changes, motorists opted back to the use of public transport such as matatus and boda boda.
"The Transport Index went up by 0.3 per cent between February 2023 and March 2023. The increase was mainly due to the rise in petrol prices by 1.1 per cent in the same period," read the March 2023 inflation report in part.
On the other hand, the use of cooking gas also declined because of the increase in the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
In the month of March, prices of LPG were reported to have increased by 1.1 per cent.
Kenyans who opted for electricity to cook were also slapped with a high cost of living since the cost of electricity also increased by 11.6 per cent.
"The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels Index, increased by 0.6 per cent between February 2023 and March 2023.
"This was mainly due to the increase in prices of electricity which went up by 11.6 per cent for 50 Kilowatts and 9 per cent for 200 kilowatts between February 2023 and March 2023," read the report in part.
As a result, a number of households resorted back to the use of Kerosene and charcoal, two options long considered health hazards and unfriendly to the environment.
Notably, projections indicate that the trend could continue as the 63 per cent increase in electricity took effect on April 1.
However, President William Ruto promised to bring down the cost of LPG gas cylinder by June 2023 to Ksh500.
"Currently, a 6kg cylinder costs about Ksh2,800, and with the subsidy, the price will fall to about Ksh500 in the next financial year beginning July this year.
"I have stated that from the month of June, we will put plans in place to ensure that women use clean energy. The first thing that we will do is remove the tax on gas. That 8 per cent the government takes will be removed to allow more Kenyans to have gas," he stated then.
