Kenya’s Fuel Price the 7th Most Expensive in Africa

Kenya is now among the top expensive countries to fill your tank following the government’s imposition of the 16 percent VAT on fuel, which came into effect on the 1st of September this year, triggering unrest across the country.

Incidentally, there is a significant difference in the prices of fuel across Africa with some as low as 30 shillings and others as high as above 150 shillings a liter. Kenya, at 127 for super petrol is among the most expensive.

As is the norm, those countries with oil plants have substantially low prices compared to those without, whose prices are elevated. The difference in prices is also brought about by taxes dependent on a country’s policy, which causes the fluctuations in price.

Usually, all countries across the globe have access to the standard petroleum prices of international markets but by imposing different taxes, the retailing price of the product enormously changes.

The usage of fuel and its pricing roots from things like the prices of crude oil, the local demand, the cost of processing, distribution, the local currency, taxation, as well as the availability of the product locally.

Today, what Kenyans are paying reflects a national pricing policy that seeks to overburden the common citizen. Commodity prices have increased, transport costs have hiked, and soon, the heat from other sectors of the economy will be felt.

Some countries subsidize their petrol prices, but apparently, Kenya seems to be doing the opposite. Petrol companies and traders are making losses and there is already a shortage of the product in various towns.

The current price of fuel in Kenya is one of the highest ever paid by motorists and is different from many African countries.

GlobalPetrolPrices.com publishes reliable data on the prices of retail fuel worldwide and it tracks over 150 countries every week. It checks the consistency of the data through several sources in every country.

Their most recent report on African countries is as shown in the tables below. The data for Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Niger, Sao Tome, and Principe, Seychelles, and Somalia were not available. Kenya is at the 7th position.