Kenya will soon start refining crude oil in Mombasa at the Kenya Petroleum Refinery before exporting the finished products to other countries.
In more than one year, the oil refinery in Mombasa has not been operational and the country has had to purchase finished petroleum products from other countries.
Despite the prevailing low prices globally in terms of crude oil, Kenya and Kenyans in general have not enjoyed that because the country has not been having the facilities to refine the crude oil.
Kenya discovered her own oil in the year 2012 in Turkana County. The oil was discovered by the United Kingdom based company Tullow Oil. Although, the exploration is yet to be commercialized officially, the government hopes to start the process of refining the products as soon as possible.
Already the Eldoret- Lokichar road is being repaired so as to ease the transportation of the crude oil from Turkana to Mombasa. According to the special cabinet meeting held on Thursday and chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the head of state gave a go ahead for full exploration of the crude oil. The meeting also approved the decision to transport 4,000 barrels of crude oil per day via road and railway to Mombasa.
Read: Why Turkana Oil Will Not Be Benefiting Kenya Soon
The government is also in the process of constructing a pipeline from Turkana to Mombasa which will be the easiest mode of transport as compared to the use of lorries and trains. Initially, the government had plans to construct a pipeline in conjunction with the government of Uganda but the Ugandan government chose Tanzania instead.
Read: Tullow Sells Half of Shares in Turkana to Africa Oil
Most Kenyans hope that by the start of Kenya refining her own crude oil, the prices of the commodity may come down and in the process ease the cost of living which is eating up most households.