MBADI BREATHES FIRE! TELLS KENYANS THE TRUTH ABOUT FUEL PRICES!”

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]the long window while my chair am a party. But let me say this in English as a time defines his bearing.

[00:00:11]You know, recently we have had some challenges.

[00:00:16]There was a serious and there is still a serious crisis of prices of petroleum products or fuel, if I may make it simple.

[00:00:26]To some extent, many of us, especially politicians, have localized this problem like it is a Kenyan problem alone.

[00:00:36]Standing here as one who sits in the cabinet of Kenya and one who is responsible for the national treasury and economic planning and one who is tasked with the heavy responsibility of balancing the economic fundamentals of the country, I want to speak here clearly and candidly that the problem of fuel is not a Kenyan problem. This is a global problem. It's an international problem. We all know, and this is something that has never happened in the history of this country, that a region like Middle East, which produces over 20% of the world's oil production and which supplies the bulk of African continent with oil, has been interrupted and interrupted 100%. Significantly, there is no fuel product that is coming from Middle East to any other part of the world.

[00:01:37]And that is why the supply chain has been disrupted.

[00:01:42]We contracted some oil marketing companies to source for us oil elsewhere in the world.

[00:01:49]They had a contract and they have been able to look for other places, which is not the Middle East. And most of the refineries in that region, Middle East, have been hit by Iran. And this is something that we see in the news and we read every day.

[00:02:06]Therefore, there is a shortage of fuel, especially to African continent.

[00:02:11]So, for these firms to get fuel into Kenya, it has to be costly because first, the demand is high.

[00:02:19]Second, and the supply is low.

[00:02:22]Automatically, if you do if you are someone who has done economics or understands finance, where demand is high and supply is low, the prices come up automatically. So, the landing costs and the route that the the fuel fuel products is taking is longer.

[00:02:41]Therefore, the prices are high.

[00:02:43]The prices have increased with not less than 80% the landing cost in Kenya.

[00:02:49]That is why we even after subsidizing, in the first month, we spent 6.2 billion to subsidize fuel products. That's the month of April. In the month of May, we first subsidized fuel products with 5 billion. 4.5 went into diesel. We have added another 2.7.

[00:03:09]And we have reduced VAT on fuel to 8% from 16%.

[00:03:17]Taking away about 15 shillings from what would have been the price of fuel. Now, when you listen to other people, especially the politicians in the opposition, they tell you the government should the government should reduce.

[00:03:31]This is not a local issue. We are responding as a government with measures that we think would help moderates and help remove the burden from the people of Kenya. But we must be alive to the fact that we are operating under extreme and extraordinary circumstances. This is a period like COVID and then some people are saying that we should do away with the G-to-G, that we should now liberalize fully importation in this country. The danger with that are two. Number one, if you don't have a reliable supplier while you have a contract with, you cannot guarantee supply of fuel. You may end up with a country dry. You may end up with a country without fuel and it would be more disaster than even when you have fuel at higher prices.

[00:04:26]Number two, if you liberalize as some people are saying, and we were there before, fuel and I've said it, some people are now making a joke of it, putting it in TikTok, that fuel is not something you buy in Kisumu with Kenya shillings. It is a fact that fuel is imported in this country and you have to use dollars to buy it.

[00:04:51]If you allow, if you don't have an arrangement like the one we have today where payment is deferred even for 3 months, there will be a strain on our shilling, on the dollar, because the demand for the dollar will be high and once the demand on the dollar is high, the dollar will strengthen against the shilling and the exchange rate will rise. You will find that instead of shilling exchanging to the dollar at 129 or 130, it may go to 160, even 180. And the moment the shilling weakens, fuel will be more expensive than what we see today. And those are things that we are guarding against because we understand this thing. So, let people not mislead Wanaainchi. People who have no agenda, people who in my view have no ideas even to suggest to us that to really sisi kama serikali, we will do whatever it takes to make sure that our people don't suffer. But you must understand that we are operating under difficult circumstances. Even the decisions that we are taking have consequences. When we reduce taxes, you should know that it goes into service delivery. I have just spoken about the roads which are supposed to be done here. Those roads would not be done if we don't get money, if we don't have taxes, if we remove all the taxes. We will not even be able to pay people salary. We will not even be able to pay security agents to secure this country. And therefore, let us sober up. Let us humble ourselves. And that is why I want to thank people from this region, the people of Nyanza. We are always known to be the ones leading in the streets. But this time, you told other people, "Uh-uh, nyinyi pia muende street. Sisi tumeeenda ya kutosha." I want to thank you. We look for solutions peacefully in a in a manner that we dialogue, not a manner where we ex- we we incite our ethnic communities to be the ones burning shops, to be the ones killing people. In fact, something that I must condemn here as I finish.

[00:07:04]We have had people with different opinions in this region.

[00:07:08]I remember even when Uhuru Kenyatta was running for the first time in 2013.

[00:07:14]There are people who are wearing Uhuru's T-shirts in this region.

[00:07:18]And we did not kill anyone just because they exercise their democratic right.

[00:07:24]It is a shame that there are some people in some regions of this country where if you don't agree with the person they're they're supporting, then you have to be killed.

[00:07:35]That the mere fact that you put a tattoo OF SOMEONE THEY DON'T WANT, you are burnt to death. That must be condemned.

[00:07:43]That should not be tolerated. And those people must be called out for what it is. And their leaders have not even condemned that act. IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE supporting such act. These are not people we can be friends with.