NAIROBI, Kenya
Most low-income families in Kenya have reduced kerosene consumption as price of the commodity rises steadily. Many of them are buying paraffin worth as little as 0.05 U.S. dollars, reversing a high-spending trend that had picked up soon after the cost of fuel in this East African nation started to rise two months ago. Fuel consumers are braced for more belt-teightening as the prices come up for review tomorrow, with little expectation of a major relief.
In capital Nairobi, particularly in low-income settlements, it is common to see people lining at petrol stations or kerosene shops with small bottles buying the product.”Many consumers are buying kerosene in smaller amounts. Someone comes here with 2.3 dollars but buys fuel worth 0.23 dollars,” Brian Kimani, an attendant at an independent petrol station in Kayole on the east of the capital, narrated to Xinhua on Monday.
Kimani said he serves many customers from the low-income settlement each day but few of them buy kerosene worth about 1.2 dollars.”Majority buy the product worth between 0.11 dollars and 0.58 dollars. In each 50 customers I serve, only two buy kerosene worth more than 0.58 dollars,” said Kimani. The petrol station attendant recounted he gets most customers early evening.”Peak time starts from 5 p.m. to about 8 p.m. This is when most people come to buy fuel. Always, there is usually a long queue as people jostle to buy the product,” he said.
Some of them, however, visit the station to buy kerosene each day.”Someone will come here and buy fuel worth 0.23 dollars and then return the next day to buy the same amount of fuel. I have observed and realized that this is what most customers do,” said Kimani.Caroline Mutua, a resident of Kayole, said she buys kerosene in smaller quantities because she tries to ensure that the money she has caters for all of her expenses.”You cannot buy fuel worth 0.58 dollars when you have 1.2 dollars and then expect to buy food and other items, you have to balance to ensure that the money caters for all your expenses,” she said.The 33-year-old said she buys fuel, which she uses for cooking and lighting, on a daily basis. “Each day I buy fuel worth 0.30 dollars, which I use to cook supper, breakfast the next day and lunch. Then in the evening, I have to go back and buy more,” she said.
The practice of buying kerosene in smaller quantities, according to Kimani, increased soon after the cost of fuel started to rise after maintaining a downward trend for months.Fuel prices in Kenya have been on the rise since September, with Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) attributing the trend to high international prices.
Last month, ERC increased prices, fuelling trouble for many low-income earners. Price of kerosene rose by bigger margin, jumping to 1.01 dollars from 0.92 dollars. The cost of super petrol also rose to 1. 35 dollars, up from 1.27 dollars. Similarly, the price of diesel jumped from 1.18 dollars to 1.24 dollars.”There is inconsistency in the price of refined petroleum products in the international market.
This has affected the cost of fuel and thus pump prices,” ERC director general Kaburu Mwirichia said in a statement. Once oil dealers effected the new prices, Kimani said consumers buying power also changed.”I saw the frequency of people coming to buy kerosene here increase as the quantity of fuel they bought decreased. Some of them even started coming here to purchase fuel twice a day,” he said.
The situation, according to Kimani, is likely to worsen if ERC increases further fuel cost in the coming days when the regulator announces new pump prices.”I have observed that when prices are low, while people still buy kerosene in small quantities, they get more in terms of the value of their money. But if prices are going to increase as expected, then many low-income earners will even reduce the quantity of fuel they are buying,” he noted.
Kerosene in Kenya is mainly used for lighting and as fuel by people in rural areas and the urban poor. Although it is detrimental to human health, the environment and is a financial burden to the poor who cannot access electricity, studies have shown that kerosene provides lighting for millions of homes in Kenya and across Africa. But as consumers feel the pinch of higher prices, small-scale traders dealing with the product are cashing in on the habit of buying in smaller quantities.The traders located in most low-income settlements in the capital buy kerosene from petrol stations and retail it for profit.
Their prices are higher by up to 40 percent. Since the traders are conveniently located in residential areas, most consumers buy from them.”Business is brisk. The more times people come to buy the commodity, the more money we make,” said George Mogire.The World Bank in a recent research titled True cost of kerosene in rural Africa on use of the product in Kenya, and other four sub-Saharan countries, found out that low-income earners in villages spend up to 40 percent more on the product than people living in urban areas. (Xinhua)
