The price of cooking gas in Kenya has dropped significantly in what is seen as the push by the state to lower the high cost of living.
In a Monday review by Metropol Digital, Buru Buru residents are currently purchasing a 13kg cylinder at Ksh.2,400.
This denotes a 17.2 percentage point drop in the costly Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), compared to Ksh.3,000 from the start of the year.
“I am currently selling a 13kg cylinder at Ksh.2,400 or Ksh.2,500 depending on the brand,” said Victor Njeru, a cooking gas cylinder dealer based in Buru Buru.
According to Victor, the drop is not uniform to that of 6kg which has slightly dropped to about Ksh.1,100 from Ksh.1,400 also depending on the brand.
“A 6k cylinder has not dropped that much…its retailing at Ksh.1,100.”
In other regions in the outskirts of Nairobi, for example, Ruaka – a 13kg cylinder is retailing at a record Ksh.1,950.
In the same region, a 6kg cylinder is retailing at Ksh.800 or Ksh.900 depending on the brand.
“Yes. It was a surprise to me. When I went for a small cylinder, it was Ksh.900 and the 13kg cylinder is going for Ksh.1,950,” said a Ruaka resident.
In March this year, President William Ruto announced that a 6kg cylinder would drop between Ksh.300 to Ksh.500 June 2023.
“From June 2023, a 6 kg cylinder of cooking gas will cost Ksh.500 or Ksh.300,” Ruto said during the launch of the Women Enterprise Fund and second product of the Hustler Fund at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC).
He would, later on, change tune that the move was impossible by June in the run-up to the 2023/24 budget reading.
“We must first approve this in the budget. As of now, there is no way to waive the tax until a new budget is passed. June 1 is not possible until we pass it through Parliament,” Ruto said.
“If we had passed it through the supplementary budget, June would be possible. But we tried to and it was not possible because it would force us to change a certain law.”
