Kenya: Price Controls Cannot Stop Energy Crisis

Continuous rise in the prices of petroleum products globally is bound to adversely impact on struggling economies – especially petroleum importing countries such as Kenya.

The last oil crisis of the 1970s left the economies of these countries in tatters that many are yet to fully recover from. Yet another crisis seems to be looming.
To cope with the high cost of obtaining the product, oil marketers have taken to everyday adjustment of pump prices. Customers have, however, met every adjustment with a hue and cry. The oil marketers’ standard response has been that the dictates of the market have necessitated such changes as and when they are made.

Complaints against the oil companies are numerous. But pricing of petroleum products remains the most vociferous.

This chorus of public outcry has seen the Minister of Energy join the fray with a warning to oil marketers that he could invoke the powers conferred on by the Energy Act, No. 12 of 2006 to rein in the industry.

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The bigger dilemma is that production of oil is declining worldwide yet the demand steadily rises. It is high time that our governments developed and increased the usage of alternative sources of energy such as solar and wind.

In the face of impending international crisis price control would achieve little.

All Africa