Costly LPG burden to households, threat to environment – experts

Brian Kimani, an eatery owner at Roysambu has been using gas for preparing meals at his outlet for the past two years.

He has been spending at least Sh1,800 for a13-kg gas which lasts him at least two weeks.

However, he now has to spend between Sh2,400 and Sh2,600 for the same product, depending on the brand he goes for.

He is considering ditching gas and instead, substitute it with charcoal.

Kimani is one of many Kenyans who are now feeling the pinch of the increase in gas prices, in the wake of the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on the commodity.

This is a flip from a previous plan by the government to provide poor households with cheap cooking gas, a dream that died with alleged corruption, lack of funds, and supply of defective cylinders.

Under the Sh3 billion 'Mwananchi Gas Project' ( Gas Yetu), households were to receive 6kg cooking gas cylinders and burners at a discounted price of about Sh2,000.

The well-thought plan was intended to save poor households from respiratory diseases, where about 80 per cent of Kenyan homes rely on charcoal, firewood, and kerosene for cooking.

It was expected to increase gas use from approximately 10 per cent currently to a penetration of 70 per cent in the short term.

According to Petroleum and Mining Principal Secretary Andrew Kamau, the plan was shelved due to a cash crunch.

Instead, the government has introduced VAT on LPG through the Finance Act 2019 Clause No. 13, where LPG was removed from the list of Zero-rated supplies.

According to the Petroleum Institute of East Africa(PIEA), the move has made gas out of reach for many households who will now resort to other sources of fuel.

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority also notes that VAT on Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG) has the potential to roll back the gains made in ensuring access to clean cooking energy.

Kenya’s latest Economic Survey indicates that indoor air pollution from cooking fuels like charcoal and firewood is killing an estimated 21,600 Kenyans annually.

Of these deaths, about 40 per cent are children(exceeding the burdens of disease of malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrhea combined).

“Making cooking gas out of reach will mean that more than 8,649 Kenyan children will continue to die annually of preventable pneumonia because of inhaling toxins from smoke as their mothers cook with charcoal and firewood,” PIEA General Manager Wanjiku Manyara says.

She notes that these children will get sick and die before they celebrate their fifth birthday.

“No child in Kenya should die from the cooking of a meal and we must all put up this fight to keep LPG affordable for our children’s sake,” she says.

On April 21, 2021, President Uhuru Kenyatta recommitment to the World that Kenya was on course in converting 100 per cent of Kenyans using firewood, charcoal and kerosene to LPG by 2028 .

The government has also committed to eliminating indoor pollution (from cooking with charcoal and firewood) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32 per cent by 2030.

However, making gas expensive makes these a dream in futility as it will be completely derailed, Manyara notes.

Experts have also cautioned that Kenya’s food security will continue to be under threat due to the climate change effects from massive deforestation, from harvesting of trees for firewood and charcoal burning.

The country also risks failing to meet the United Nations recommended afforestation target of 10 per cent forest cover by 2030 and the current 7.4 per cent cover will continue to decline, PIEA notes.

Forest destruction currently stands at 10.3 million cubic meters per year.

Local manufacturing of LPG cylinders is also likely to remain stagnant on reduced demand of cooking gas, sector players say.

This means Kenya’s LPG growth action targets to increase LPG cylinders to 18 million by 2030 from the current 4.5 million also remains in the balance, even as millions of Kenyans struggle with high cost of living where inflation has been rising.

The month-on-month overall rate of inflation has been going up from 5.76 per cent in April, 5.87 per cent in May, 6.32 per cent in June and 6.44 per cent in July.

“We expect President Kenyatta to request parliament to review the Finance Act and ease the cost of living especially by dropping added taxes on cooking gas, fuel and essentials foodstuffs,” says Stephen Mutoro, Secretary-General, Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK).

Revenue loss

The loss of government Sh9 billion annual revenue from solid sodium carbonate(trona) mining, will become a devastating reality due to the drying up of Lake Magadi, PIEA notes, which has been caused by degradation from deforestation, climate change and siltation.

The drying up of Lake Magadi has put at risk the livelihoods of 50,000 community members and 600 employees so far.

The effects of deforestation and environmental degradation came alive earlier this year with the flooding of lakes in Naivasha, Nakuru and Turkana, where over approximately 40,000 Kenyans were displaced from their homes and over 6,000 jobs had been lost.

Deforestation is also a threat to the extinction of unique fish and bird species including flamingoes, which goes to affect tourism revenues.

PIEA notes that Sh7 billion anticipated revenue that the government hopes to collect from imposing the 16 per cent VAT on LPG will be outstripped by the attendant massive costs on children’s lives, health, food security, deforestation, investments, jobs, wealth creation, trona export, tourism, water and sanitation.