President William Ruto
President William Ruto has stated that he moved to remove the electricity subsidy because it was unsustainable.
Speaking during a roundtable interview with media houses on Wednesday January 4, President Ruto stated that the subsidy was benefiting a few people.
“Power subsidies were politically-motivated to make Kenyans vote a certain way [in the August 9, 2022 presidential election]. There was no economic sense in it. Some Sh25 billion was being spent on fuel and power subsidies monthly. We did not have the money to cater for the subsidies; we were borrowing it locally or externally,”
“The subsidies were benefiting only a few people, and Kenyans were still experiencing a high cost of living,” he stated.
The Head of state nonetheless pledged to review electricity tariffs in March 2023.
“The price of electricity production is determined by several stakeholders, including the private sector. In March 2023, we’ll sit down and review the tariffs so that power becomes more affordable.” said Ruto.
President Ruto had ealier ruled out increase on electricity prices in 2023.
While speaking on January 1 during a church service in Mombasa the Head of State explained that the government had already removed the subsidies in August 2022, hence, the electricity cost would not go up.
“We have already taken care of all the subsidies that we removed in August and we are going to ensure our manufacturers, our value-addition processors and all Kenyans including those on lifeline tariffs are taken into consideration as we review the tariffs going into the future,” said Ruto.
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