The Kenyan government is planning to attract more than $200 million to build a number of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) facilities, together with a $200-million LPG site, which is being constructed under Taifa Gas, a Tanzanian private company, said Kenyan Energy Secretary Davis Chirchir.
The top official stated that government intends to build a 45,000-ton site in Mombasa to help make clean cooking gas less expensive and more available to households, adding that today about 70% of Kenyans rely on wood as fuel to prepare meals.
The Kenya Pipeline Company, a state corporation, will start developing LPG storage and bottling facilities at the government's defunct oil processing plant in the next financial year starting from July 1, the energy secretary said.
According to Chirchir, Kenya's Energy & Petroleum Regulatory Authority has issued around a dozen licenses to private investors to build LPG sites.
Increased storage volumes will make it possible for Kenya to centrally import LPG within a so-called open tender system where a retailer with the most-favorable pricing will become an offer, Chirchir noted.
Recently, Kenyan President William Ruto pledged to eliminate taxes on cooking gas. According to Energy Secretary Chichir, Kenya is going to reduce the fuel prices by one-third to about 70 shillings ($0.6) per kilogram from the current 180 shillings ($1.419), and to nearly double its utilization over a seven-year period to 13 kilograms per capita from the estimated 7.5 kilograms at present.
Kenya, along with other African countries, is trying to ditch the use of charcoal among the population. Anywhere from 850 million to 900 million people in Africa utilize solid fuels, such as charcoal and firewood for cooking, media reports say. According to the World Bank, that results in shorter lives of more than half a million Africans every year, since these types of fuel emit carbon monoxide which endangers people's health.