Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has urged businesspeople and investors who have been hoarding the United States (US) dollars in speculation of rising prices to offload them to the market.
Kenyan shilling against the dollar has continued to fall in recent months due to the shortage of dollars in the country.
The shortage of dollars has been due to the demand for dollars by traders to pay for imports and the national government to service its external loans.
As of Thursday, the dollar was trading at Sh134.
“We ask all those Kenyans, businesspeople, investors, who have been hoarding US dollars for the purpose of speculation, please offload those dollars to the market. It is very honest advice from a truthful man,” said the Deputy President.
He was speaking at the Port of Mombasa on Thursday evening after receiving two oil tankers that had brought into the country 172,191 tonnes of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel.
The two oil tankers; 252-metre-long MT Front Capella and 250-metre-long MT Norddolphin arrived in the country on Thursday from the United Arab Emirates.
The oil tankers brought the first oil consignment after the Kenyan government signed a Government-to-Government (G2G) deal with UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation (ADNOC) and Saudi Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) for the supply of petroleum products with a six-month credit period.
The two countries will supply Kenya with oil for 270 days (nine months).
The deal, which was signed in March was meant to curb the demand for foreign currencies that has weakened the Kenyan shilling.
The deal is also meant to curb the high cost of fuel products.
Gachagua said fuel importation into the country consumes about USD 4 million every month which is why they entered into a government-government deal with United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to access fuel on credit.
“With what has happened, about 3-5 million dollars will be available in the market, the demand for the dollar will come down and the shilling will gain. Those who have been hoarding dollars hoping that it will continue going up, it will go down starting today,” said Gachagua,
“Therefore, if you have a few dollars that you are still holding, please let them go to the market and you will come to thank me for it after a week or two.”
MT Front Capella, which was built in 2017 and sails under the flag of the Marshall Islands, is carrying 83,000 tonnes of Jet A-1 (aviation fuel) from Port Ruwais in UAE. It sailed from UAE for 10 days and 14 hours.
MT Norddolphin, a Portugal-flagged oil tanker that was also built in 2017, has brought into the country 89, 191 tonnes of automotive oil (diesel and petrol). The vessel left Jebel Ali Port in UAE five days ago for Mombasa Port.
According to the agreement, Saudi Aramco will be supplying supply two diesel cargo consignments monthly, while ADNOC will supply three cargo consignments of super petrol monthly.
“This is a clear testimony that men and women are not sleeping trying to get our economy back. I want to say things have not been very good, but there are serious signs we are on a great path of economic recovery and I want to assure Kenyans things will be good,” said Gachagua.
He reiterated that the Kenya Kwanza government will not reinstate the subsidy programme on maize and fuel to help lower the cost of living.
He described the subsidy of fuel as a ‘foolish strategy’, adding that they will not succumb to the opposition’s push to reintroduce that programme.
“For the record, this (importing on six-month credit) is the way to bring down the cost of fuel. That strategy of fuel subsidy is foolish because it is not sustainable,” said the Deputy President.
“We want to dismiss with contempt those who are calling us and telling us to reinstate subsiding consumption it cannot work. Therefore, we want to tell those who have been telling us that they want to go to the streets so that we may bring back the fuel subsidy, it will not happen,” he said.
President William Ruto cancelled the subsidy of petroleum products immediately after he was sworn into office, saying it was not sustainable.
The opposition has been calling for the reintroduction of the subsidy programme will help in reducing the cost of living in the country.
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