Fuel crisis: Roadside hawkers profit from shortage

There are fears of adulterated fuel after unlicensed people took advantage of the ongoing shortage to hawk the commodity.

Most of the traders are selling the fuel in small bottles.

It has emerged that some suppliers are colluding with the brokers to adulterate and sell the fuel to motorists at exorbitant prices.

Some motorists confessed to having fallen victim.

In Migori, Homa Bay and Kisumu, the hawkers were selling a litre of petrol at between Sh250 and Sh300. The few petrol stations that had fuel were selling a litre at the set price of Sh135.

In Migori, a trader with five 20-litre jerricans of petrol in an iron-sheet structure on the roadside said she bought the fuel the previous night at a petrol  station in Tanzania.

“I don’t think it is wrong for us to hawk fuel. Everyone is in dire need of the product and we have it and so, we should not be condemned,” said the trader who asked not to be named.

She, however, denied she was adulterating fuel to make more cash.

“There may be those who are doing it but I’m not.”

Next to a petrol in Migori town, a group of brokers were also calling aside motorists waiting in long queues to sell them fuel.

Another vendor confessed to bribing a petrol station attendant to buy three 20-litre jerricans of fuel.

Mr Joseph Otieno, a motorist in Kisumu, said he was a victim of fuel adulteration.

“It was contaminated fuel because the next day my car could not start,” he said.

Some of the motorists claimed they had been sold petrol mixed with kerosene.

Adulterated fuel could lead to engine malfunctions. It is also a threat to the environment and increases emission levels.

According to Mr Evans Andala, the chairperson of Kisumu Matatu Owners Association, most of their members have now withdrawn their vehicles from the roads.

He said some of the members had also bought contaminated fuel. “We want the government to stop the hawking of fuel in bottles. Rogue businessmen are now taking advantage of our desperation to sell to us adulterated fuel,” he said.

Mr Andala said some Tanzanian traders have infiltrated the market and are selling fuel in bottles. “Sometimes the fuel is being sold in the presence of police officers,” he said.