The Energy Petroleum and Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on Thursday, May 4, explained how landlords and real estate developers can play a role in reducing cooking gas prices.
In its quarterly report between January and March, EPRA noted that the stakeholders should be encouraged to adopt gas piping technology in their construction designs.
According to EPRA, the move will allow for centralised refiling storage within houses enabling the installation of gas meters where residents can buy gas tokens to the quantities they need directly from an outside storage facility as opposed to every homeowner having their gas cylinders located indoors.
Furthermore, the move may significantly reduce accidents in homes while transporting gas cylinders.
Additionally, EPRA noted that besides Kenya constructing a 30,000 metric tonnes capacity Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant at the Dongo Kundu special economic zone, the country was still importing LPG.
The plant was aimed at encouraging the use of LPG among Kenyans, especially low-income consumers who use kerosene, firewood, and charcoal.
To reduce the amount imported, EPRA called for modalities of creating LPG reserves to cushion consumers from fluctuating global supply and price shocks.
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) was tasked with intervening and helping local suppliers come up with fair pricing models to encourage healthy competition.
"More competition should be encouraged, including creating an open tender system which
will allow smaller market players to access LPG at cheaper prices," read part of the report.
Conclusively, EPRA suggested that to make the cylinders more affordable, they should be packaged in affordable quantities while maintaining quality and safety as well as reducing the proximity to refilling depots.
Meanwhile, in February, President William Ruto announced plans to remove all taxes imposed on cooking gas in a bid to lower their cost for Kenyans.
"We are going to remove all taxes that are currently being levied on cooking gas so that in the next three years, all Kenyan houses will have cooking gas which is way affordable," Ruto vowed.
