Questions Emerge After Government Spends Ksh11.5bn Shielding Kenya’s Least-Used Fuel
Fresh questions have emerged over the government’s decision to spend more than Ksh11.5 billion cushioning diesel and kerosene prices in just two months, despite official data showing kerosene accounts for less than one per cent of Kenya’s total petroleum consumption.
The latest scrutiny follows the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s (EPRA) fuel review announced on Thursday, May 14, which saw diesel prices surge by Ksh46.29 to Ksh242.92 per litre in Nairobi, while petrol rose by Ksh16.65 to Ksh214.25. Kerosene prices, however, remained frozen at Ksh152.78 per litre.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi confirmed on Friday that the government had spent Ksh5 billion through the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) stabilisation mechanism to cushion consumers against the latest increase.
“The government has utilised the Petroleum Development Levy stabilisation mechanism to cushion the prices of diesel and kerosene during this review period,” Wandayi said.
The latest intervention comes barely a month after the state injected another Ksh6.5 billion into fuel subsidies during the April pricing cycle, pushing the total expenditure in two months beyond Ksh11 billion.
At the centre of the controversy is the government’s continued protection of kerosene prices, despite the fuel’s rapidly declining use across the country.
Last month, while addressing a public gathering in Siaya County, Wandayi disclosed that President William Ruto had personally directed EPRA to maintain kerosene prices at Ksh152.78 per litre even as petrol and diesel prices climbed sharply.
The administration has defended the move as a social protection measure aimed at shielding low-income households that still rely on kerosene for cooking and lighting.
Speaking during a rally in South Mugirango, Kisii County, on April 15, President Ruto insisted the subsidy was necessary to protect vulnerable Kenyans from the rising cost of living.
“We have made sure that paraffin used by ordinary citizens does not increase, because we want to cushion the people of Kenya,” the President said.
However, the government’s position has sparked debate after fresh data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed kerosene now represents only a tiny fraction of the country’s fuel demand.
According to the KNBS Economic Survey 2026, kerosene accounted for just 0.8 per cent of domestic petroleum consumption in 2025. In contrast, light diesel oil represented 42.3 per cent of total demand, while petrol consumption stood at approximately 29 per cent.
The figures indicate that petrol usage was nearly 36 times higher than kerosene consumption over the same period.
The data further shows kerosene demand has collapsed dramatically over the last five years, dropping from 111,300 tonnes in 2021 to just 44,100 tonnes in 2025 — a decline of more than 60 per cent.
Meanwhile, demand for petrol continued to rise, increasing from 1.55 million tonnes in 2021 to 1.66 million tonnes in 2025, despite a brief dip in 2023.
Diesel remained the country’s dominant fuel product, driven by heavy use in commercial transport, agriculture and power generation. Consumption fluctuated between 2.19 million and 2.31 million tonnes between 2021 and 2024 before rising sharply to 2.42 million tonnes in 2025.
The figures have intensified questions over why billions of shillings in public funds continue to be directed toward stabilising a fuel with shrinking national relevance.
Critics are now demanding greater transparency from the government over how the subsidy programme is structured, amid growing concern that taxpayers may be financing costly interventions with limited economic impact.
So far, the administration has not publicly addressed the widening disparity between the scale of the kerosene subsidy and the fuel’s diminishing share in Kenya’s energy market.
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