Outrage as Motorists Demand EPRA Be Disbanded for “Exploitative” Fuel Pricing.

A new wave of fury is sweeping across Kenya, with motorists demanding the complete disbandment of the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), accusing it of enforcing unfair fuel prices that punish millions of ordinary Kenyans.

The Motorists Association of Kenya (MAK) issued a scathing challenge on Monday, calling EPRA’s monthly fuel price revisions a “circus” engineered to keep Kenyans in perpetual fear of sudden hikes. The group argues that the current system is no longer about market realities, but political convenience—and financial extraction.

The Claims: What MAK Says

• Politicised pricing: MAK argues that since EPRA replaced the old Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2013, fuel pricing has become opaque. According to MAK, EPRA’s board, made up of political appointees, sets costs without sufficient public input or transparency.
• Opaque procurement: The association is particularly critical of the government-to-government (G-to-G) fuel procurement model, which it says allows a few insiders to profit while ordinary Kenyans bear the brunt.
• Monthly shocks: Although recent revisions saw slight reductions in petrol and kerosene prices by less than one shilling per litre, MAK contends that large jumps in other months (some rising by over Sh8 per litre) are masked within the cycle of price reviews. These unpredictable swings, it claims, undermine planning for households, transport operators and small businesses.
• Wider impact: High fuel prices, the group warns, ripple across the economy—fuel hikes push up public transport fares, inflate the cost of goods, and worsen the cost of living, squeezing vulnerable Kenyans hardest.

The Price Details

Under EPRA’s latest revision, Nairobi pump prices were set at: Super Petrol KES 184.52, Diesel KES 171.47, and Kerosene KES 154.78 per litre. Other cities like Mombasa and Nakuru recorded prices only marginally lower, reflecting the unrelenting trend across regions. These figures include value-added tax, excise duty, and other levies.

Earlier changes had shown slight decreases—for example, a Sh0.79 drop in super petrol and Sh0.80 in kerosene—but MAK says those reliefs are negligible given the frequency of price hikes.

Demands & What’s at Stake

MAK is calling for:

• EPRA to be dissolved and replaced with an institution that restores the old transparent formula used by the ERC.
• A return to open tendering in fuel procurement rather than exclusive government-to-government contracts.
• A pricing model driven strictly by global oil trends, exchange rates, and shipping costs—not political interests.

These demands raise urgent stakes. If fuel pricing remains unpredictable and steep, Kenya could see further erosion of public trust, widened economic inequality, and mounting hardship for low-income households.