- A litre of super petrol will retail at Sh134.72 in Nairobi starting midnight
- The price of kerosene mostly used by rural and urban families for cooking and lighting has been retained at Sh103.54 per litre.
The price of a litre of super petrol and diesel will rise by Sh5 starting midnight as the heat of the ongoing Russia/Ukraine crisis hits home.
According to the latest monthly price review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), a litre of super petrol will retail at Sh134.72 in Nairobi from Sh129.72 while diesel will go for Sh115.60 from Sh110.60.
The price of kerosene mostly used by rural and urban families for cooking and lighting has been retained at Sh103.54 per litre.
Fuel consumers in Kenya have in the past five months been shielded from skyrocketing global oil prices by the government through a subsidy fund introduced in July last year.
The subsidy scheme is supported by billions of shillings raised from fuel consumers through the Petroleum Development Levy, which was increased to Sh5.40 a litre in July last year from Sh0.40, representing a 1,250 per cent rise.
Without the subsidy, consumers would have paid Sh155.11 for a litre of petrol, Sh143.16 for a litre of diesel and Sh130.44 for kerosene.
A hike in monthly fuel prices is coming just days after Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) deliberated on the way forward after the government indicated it would be difficult to sustain the subsidy as global prices skyrocket due to the Russia/Ukraine crisis.
The marketers had projected a litre of super petrol to go above Sh150 in absence of the government's plan on rising global prices.
Yesterday, the international benchmark, Brent crude, spiked 8.54 per cent higher to $128.2 (Sh14,592).
On Monday, EPRA attributed the increase to a double rate jump on imported crude oil.
For instance, landed cost for a cubic metre of super petrol rose by 13.4 per cent in February to $676.4 (Sh77,109) compared to $596.79 (Sh68,035) in January.
Diesel increased by 11.74 per cent from $606.17 (Sh69,103) to $677.31 (Sh77,213) per cubic metre while that of kerosene increased by 15.94 per cent to $619.31(Sh70,566) per cubic metre.
The increase in fuel prices is likely to exert pressure on the cost of living as traders push the high import costs to end consumers.