Uganda receives 27m litres of fuel as Kenya struggles against Tanzania competition

Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) CEO Joe Sang told the Business Daily that the amount has been lifted from the facility since it became operational at the start of this year. The jetty is a $12 million facility that offers a more convenient fuel transport route given that it has cut the time taken compared to trucks.

It promises to be a big bargaining chip to ward off competition from Tanzania as the main fuel import entry for fuel to Uganda and other countries in the region. Kenya had reviewed transport costs upward (from Ksh3.87 to Ksh3.56 in the year ended June) in a bid to help KPC raise more revenue.

“So far, we have transported about 27 million litres of fuel to Uganda in the seven months that the jetty has been working. But we expect this amount to increase when the facility starts operating at full capacity,” Sang said last week.

For years Uganda has relied on road transport to get fuel from Kenya to meet the local monthly demand of 5.4 billion litres. However, this could become more difficult as Kenya is expected to further increase transport costs to Ksh4.09 ($0.029) in the year to June 2024 and Ksh4.06 a year later.

The Kisumu oil jetty is currently only serving Uganda. Its refurbishment was completed in 2019 but operationalisation was delayed as Uganda lagged in building its oil jetty.

Mahathi Infra Uganda Ltd, the consortium of private investors that was building the jetty on the Ugandan side, had in 2020 said the facility would be completed before April 2021, according to East African's John Mutua.