The Treasury has signalled a revival of the stalled subsidy scheme for affordable cooking gas, with the inclusion in the draft budget of a plan to distribute 300,000 six-kilogramme LPG cylinders to low-income households in the next three years, business Daily Africa reports.
The cooking gas subsidy scheme initiated by the Energy ministry during the 2016/2017 financial year was aimed at cutting reliance on environment-unfriendly kerosene and charcoal, which are the main source of fuel for most rural and urban poor households before the plan was killed by coast based tycoon Mohammed Jaffer.
The editor of this site highly suspects that the ministry of finance now has interest of Kenyans at heart or it is round two of Mwananchi gas heist loading
Jaffer Mohammed oversaw the death of NOCK so that he can steal Mwananchi gas cylinders-and he repainted them with those pink crap flooded on the markets.
Jaffer Mohammed through his proxies hijacked the Mwanachi Gas project that was initially to be implemented by the defunct Ministry of Energy and Petroleum beginning 2016.
The LPG cartel cock-blocked the defunct Ministry of Energy and Petroleum and diverted the Mwanachi Gas project to the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) which to date has not achieved its objective.
According to the Auditor General’s reports, the unauthorized handover of the Mwananchi Gas project to the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) was overseen by deeply connected figures and LPG heads that have managed to derail the process to supply the remaining products to thousands of Kenyans.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, in her audit report for Nock last year, scrutinized the spending of millions of public funds in the project, yet value for money had not been established.
“Records made available by the corporation indicated that a total of 144,092 6kg gas cylinders, 357,360 cylinder grills and 357,336 gas burners valued at Sh539,741,103 were received from the State Department for Petroleum. Of these quantities, the corporation, jointly with the State Department for Petroleum inspected and certified the use of 45,797 cylinders, 40,484 gas burners and 114,680 grills with an aggregate value of Sh56,419,124.
Jaffer Mohammed is a terrible man and Kenyans need to avoid his theatrics before he plunges this country into economic chaos. Jaffer made sure that NOCK was making losses and he succeeded in that. In the year to June 2020, Nock incurred an Sh142 million loss (40 per cent) compared with Sh352 million it lost in 2018/19. The Sh494.5 million loss in 2019/20 pushed Nock’s losses to Sh3.05 billion.
“The corporation is, therefore, technically insolvent and its continued existence as a going concern is dependent upon the financial support of the government, bankers and its creditors unless management puts in place measures to improve the performance of the corporation and to reduce reliance on financial support from the shareholders,” the report says.
Between July 2017 and December 2018, Nock recorded losses of 4,097,221 litres of diesel and 341,063 litres of super petrol, valued at Sh365.9 million. In June 2019, another loss of 32,000 litres of diesel valued at Sh3.62 million was reported.
Jaffer Mohammed used the chaos he created at NOCK and stole 40 per cent of the remaining Mwananchi gas cylinders.
Responding to last year’s audit queries, the Nock management blamed the state department for failing to communicate how Nock was supposed to handle the products after the 2018 handing over of the project, for the delays in distribution.
“The corporation received Mwananchi gas cylinders and accessories in FY2017/18. Since there was no clear communication from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum on how the corporation was to treat the Mwananchi gas cylinders and accessories, the cylinders and accessories were accounted for in the books as an asset (inventory) with a corresponding liability,” the management said.
Nock said it has unsuccessfully tried writing to the state department seeking ownership of the project.
“Management wrote a letter to the ministry, making recommendations to address the ownership and management of cylinders and accessories, and a second letter addressing the price buildup and subsidy applied on the cylinders and accessories. This was intended to ensure that the ministry transfers ownership of the cylinders to National Oil and that the ministry also gives concurrence on the pricing of the cylinder and accessories. Approval was given by the ministry to apply a subsidy of 65 per cent on the landed cost of the cylinders and accessories in the buildup of the prices to the end-users with overall concurrence on the proposed price of Sh2,150 for a complete cylinder set. (Letter reference MOPM 68B/3/2/Vol IV dated October 11, 2018)
Already, Kenyans are feeling the pinch of Mohammed Jaffer monopolizing the LPG sector since Pro-Gas is the most expensive hence the need for government to do something.
Now that the Mohammed Jaffer family has monopolized the gas industry, fear is that he can decide to create an artificial gas shortage that will have a great impact on the economy.
