Africa-Press – Kenya. Evangelist Reuben Kigame has supported the removal of fuel subsidies as a long-term measure to bring down the cost of living.
He has encouraged Kenyans to support the new government and give it a chance to address the fuel crisis.
“I personally believe that, although it will hurt temporarily, doing away with the subsidies is the way to go,” Kigame said in a statement on Twitter.
During his maiden speech after taking the oath, President William Ruto said he would remove fuel subsidies, saying they were fleecing public coffers but with no impact.
He said fuel subsidies have cost taxpayers Sh144 billion and in the last four months alone, the programme took Sh60 billion.
“If the subsidy continues to the end of the financial year, it will cost the taxpayer Sh280 billion, equivalent to the entire national government development budget,” Ruto said.
Fuel prices are the key determinants of the cost of consumer goods and the higher they go the costlier the goods become.
With the removal of the subsidy, fuel and food prices will now be determined by market forces of supply and demand.
Following Ruto’s policy shift, fuel prices on Wednesday surged to a record high piling more pressure on a Kenyan population that was already struggling with high transport and food prices.
The price of Super Petrol increased by Sh20 to Sh179.30 per litre, Diesel increased by Sh25 to Sh165 while Kerosene increased by Sh20 to Sh147.94 in Nairobi.
Kigame, however, absolved the new regime from blame saying it inherited the problem of high fuel prices from the Jubilee administration which Ruto, ironically, served in as Deputy President for ten years.
“It’s not the new government that hiked the fuel costs. They argued that the fuel subsidies were overtaxing us,” Kigame said.
He noted that every mid-month, the Energy Petroleum Regulatory Authority evaluates and recommends fuel costs in accordance with multiple factors.
They include landing costs, exchange rate and Value Added Tax (VAT).
“It is these factors that the new government needs to evaluate,” Kigame said.
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