Major petroleum companies have rebranded as energy companies, so society is changing - Martin Chomba

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]EVs in the market and I'm going to look at it in different perspective, right?

[00:00:03]So, where we find ourselves today, especially in the fuel crisis that that that we are in, is because the demand for fuel is high. Why? Because that is what is pushing um the transport sector um moving of goods, moving of people from one point to the other. Now, EVs come in as a solution to the demand because if we buy say 1 million um liters of of of of diesel, for example, but we have EVs that are being used to ferry people from point A to point B, the demand for diesel will go down because they don't use diesel. So, that diesel that we're talking about will then be used for other sectors that need it, right? Now, when we see these um in the finance bill, additional taxes going into the EV sector, that means it's going to be expensive to manufacture, expensive for money to purchase. That means we'll still go back to our traditional way of importing uh fossil-fuel powered vehicles, which then adds on the pressure. Are we seeing that being a disservice to the to what we're trying to solve, fuel crisis in the country?

[00:01:17]>> Thank you. Thank you very much. Allow me first of all to start by um an indictment to the people who make policies and especially around taxation in the country.

[00:01:30]And as uh the leader has rightly put it, the fact that today you lobby for something you're given next year, it is taken away from through the finance bill, is one of the um uh economic disincentives that we've been talking about, um what you call unreliable, unpredictable taxation regimes. Because you remember um when people are looking to put up a business, you're looking at um your break-even time, um and you're looking at the return on your investment and when you're doing the postulations when you're sitting down to do to focus on how you'll you'll you'll do your business you're looking at maybe 5 6 7 10 years and there has to be a predictability that allows you now to really strategize but when you think that every every every year there will be a change of taxes and laws and all that then you you're not able to even arrange your finances or project how your business is going to be.

[00:02:31]So that's an indictment. The people who are doing the they are doing taxes and they have an interest to grow the industries in Kenya. First of all we must appreciate that we need to have a predictable tax regime. So that if I put up a business today I know in the next 5 10 years this is going to be the tax regime.

[00:02:51]Having said that when you look at um the the impact of the EVs in the country within the the space of both mobility versus the fuel that we use. We we we say that petroleum is a is especially diesel is a production oil is a production fuel and so there's a lot of competition in terms of the industries and the motor vehicles and all that and and the space of EV we don't from where I see it we don't see and the industry has long accepted and if you want to know that we have accepted EVs you'll see that every major petroleum company has rebranded from petroleum to energies.

[00:03:40]There's a reason because if you look at look at any company that you know if they are no longer so and so petroleum so and so petroleum they are so and so energies because we are realizing and we appreciate that we are changing.

[00:03:54]The society is changing. So is the business topography. The economic outlook is changing. Why?

[00:04:01]Today with the growth of EV, with the growth of solar, with the growth of solar energy and wind power, we have not seen a decrease in the use of fossil fuel.

[00:04:13]>> Mhm.

[00:04:14]>> We have not seen that. Why? The economies are expanding.

[00:04:17]>> Mhm.

[00:04:17]>> And they are expanding like you said, the growth in the EV sector in the country is not where it ought to be.

[00:04:26]Yes, it is coming, but it's not gotten to a place where we would see that it is threatening the use of diesel. No, no, no, no, far from it. Neither is our solar or wind power. So they are becoming complementary sources of energy for the economy.

[00:04:42]And so for us, where we are, we are also changing our petrol stations, the outlets that we have. We are playing We are now putting them as energy centers.

[00:04:52]>> Mhm.

[00:04:52]>> Where the if you're looking to swap the battery that is where the the electric motor vehicle motorcycles will come and swap those batteries. So for us, we are not threatened. We are actually building now in investing in the making our infrastructure robust such that if you need to charge you don't need to go anywhere else. So and because we have an existing infrastructure, they may not need to reinvest in another infrastructure that looks at charging and all that. So we can we are just complementing one another. So there is no clash from where we sit. And from development economic development study, if you look at it, you realize that each part is needed. Why? Today even if we had 10,000 EVs in the country, the first question >> Mhm.

[00:05:45]>> if we had a 100,000 EVs in the in this country or a million one, the first question you need to ask yourself, have we developed our energy sources to a level that we can charge these vehicles effectively? So, it is not one thing because it's I see people look at EV like you can just import a million vehicles and they have taken over now.

[00:06:09]There are a lot of other industry that must be developed. Amongst them, the energy sources because they they will they will now compete with the little energy that we have. And today, the beauty about the EVs you they are charging at night. The few cars that we have. So, when what our energy ministry has been talking about, we lose a lot of power at night because there's no uptake. So, it is becoming a complementing issue where they will charge now, they will be able to uptake that energy.

[00:06:40]During the day they are driving. Yeah, they are charged So, when it's charging, then we are not using energy. During the day, the energy is being used by other industries. And it's complete