Whenever the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) is plotting to increase fuel prices in Kenya, it delays announcing the prices until late into the night. March 14, 2026 was the latest of this notorious habit by the government agency.
Just a few hours to midnight, the EPRA released a shocker upon Kenyans. Fuel prices were increasing by as much as Sh40 per litre.
According to the regulator, a litre of diesel increased by Sh40.30 and will now retail at Sh206.84 in Nairobi. Petrol increased by a margin of Sh28.69 and will now retail at highs of Sh206.97 per litre in Nairobi while a litre of kerosene will continue to retail unchanged at Sh152.78 per litre.
Incidentally, the government subsidized kerosene by Sh99.16 per litre. These increases could have been severe had the government not used subsidies and tax cuts. There was a subsidy of Sh20.30 per litre on diesel and Sh4.92 per litre on petrol. At the same time, there was a reduction in Value Added Tax (VAT) from 16 percent to 13 percent.
“Effectively, the Value Added Tax rate on super petrol, diesel, and kerosene has been reduced from 16 percent to 13 percent in order to cushion consumers from the high landed cost of petroleum products as a result of the escalated prices in the international market,” said the EPRA Acting Director General Joseph Oketch.
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According to the regulatory authority, the landed cost for diesel had increased by 68.7 percent to USD1,073.2 per cubic metre.
The landed cost for petrol and kerosene had increased by 41.53 percent to USD823.87 and 105.15 percent to USD1,311.93. The new fuel prices will remain in force until May 14, 2026.
The trend by the authority to hike prices late into the night goes back to the period between May 2023 and February 2024 when it waited for late hours to hike prices. For instance, in May 2023, higher fuel prices were announced minutes to midnight.
