Nine Kilos in Ten Cross One Jetty: EPRA Must Open Kenya's Gas Gate by 27 NovemberNine Kilos in Ten Cross One Jetty: EPRA Must Open Kenya's Gas Gate by 27 November

We hold that the Government cannot promise clean cooking to seven in ten households by 2028 while the narrowest point in the supply chain stays unpublished, unregulated and unbuilt. We call on the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, the National Treasury and Parliament to act by Friday 27 November 2026.

A promise with no plumbing

Roughly a quarter of Kenyan households cook with gas, and the Government's goal is 70% by 2028. Each person used 8.9kg in 2025, well short of the 15kg target, and demand growth slowed from 14.59% to 10.82% between the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, as Mwenendo set out in its analysis of the gas market.

The pressure on families is rising, not easing. As many as 1.5 million households lost their cooking fuel when Koko Networks, an ethanol supplier, closed in January. Kerosene then rose 14.7% in October to KSh 220.88 ($1.70) a litre, which we examined in our editorial on the kerosene price build-up.

By our own energy arithmetic, a 13kg cylinder carries as much heat as about 17.3 litres of paraffin. At October prices that paraffin would cost about KSh 3,829 ($29.48), against KSh 3,429.61 ($26.40) for the gas.

Gas also lacks the price cap that covers petrol, diesel and kerosene, so the only protection buyers have is competition between the ship and the stove.

Three plans, three stalls

The first is a state-run open tender for gas imports, approved by the Cabinet in December 2024, in which suppliers would bid on the margin they charge. The regulator expects new terminals to feed it, yet the scheme has no start date.

The second is shared access. Last November a National Assembly committee on delegated legislation advised throwing out draft rules that would have obliged private gas terminals to serve other marketers at tariffs fixed by the regulator. Its stated grounds were that the rules reached the House late and the public had little say.

The third is a competing terminal. Taifa Gas is building a KSh 16B ($123.17M) facility at Dongo Kundu with room for 30,000 tonnes. In August, Investments, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui said it would open within three months. By October, senators touring the site found it 85% built, with first use pencilled in for early 2027. Asharami's separate plan for Changamwe does not finish before late 2028.

The whole country's gas storage came to 44,430 tonnes in March 2025, less than five weeks of demand at the 2025 rate. Between July and December 2025, African Gas and Oil Limited landed about 207.99 million kilos, around 90% of recorded imports, while Lake Gas handled about 22.02 million, the regulator's twice-yearly statistics show.

The levy that moved the wrong way

Supply stayed narrow while the tax rose. A gazette order lifted the Petroleum Development Levy on gas from KSh 0.40 to KSh 5.40 ($0.04) a kilo. For a 13kg cylinder the charge went from KSh 5.20 ($0.04) to KSh 70.20 ($0.54), about 2% of October's average refill price of KSh 3,429.61 ($26.40).

The Consumer Federation of Kenya called the rate "a direct contradiction of the government's own clean cooking policy". We agree. A state that wants households to move to gas should not add a levy while the fees at the gate are secret.

How much of that price is decided at the jetty cannot be known from outside. Marketers without a berth pay whatever the terminal owner charges to land and store their cargo, and the fee schedule is not public.

The strongest case for leaving it alone

There is a serious argument against intervention. The jetty is privately owned, and its owner carries the commercial risk. Forced access and regulated tariffs could frighten off the investors Kenya needs, and Taifa's KSh 16B shows that private capital will come without being pushed. The committee's worries about timing and public input are legitimate, and competition at the kiosk is real, with 13kg refills priced more than KSh 1,000 ($7.69) apart.

We accept the process point and the investment point, and we ask for neither to be overridden. Publishing a fee, a market share or a tender date does not expropriate anyone. A defective regulation is cured by tabling a better one with proper public participation, not by leaving the gap open for another year.

Four demands, one deadline

First, the regulator must publish by 27 November each brand's share of gas sales for the year to June 2026, as it already does for petrol, diesel, kerosene and jet fuel, together with the fees charged to land and store gas at Mombasa.

Second, Mr Wandayi must name in writing the date of the first open-tender cargo and the bidding rules, by the same day.

Third, the Committee on Delegated Legislation and the Energy ministry must tell the House whether replacement common-user regulations will be tabled with public participation, and when.

Fourth, the Treasury must publish what the higher gas levy has raised since it took effect and set it beside the clean cooking target, or reverse it.

If these four answers are not public by 27 November, Kenya's gas policy will be a target with no mechanism, and the family at the kiosk will keep paying for a gate nobody will describe. We will report which institutions met the deadline and which did not.