High cost of fuel is as a result of poor planning

Kenyans are very sad indeed.In the last few weeks we have watched helplessly as government and oil marketers engage in a blame game. Kenyans had to contend from high cost of oil to lack of oil.As the old adage goes,its like jumping from the pan to the fire.One thing is clear though that the government and oil marketers are at best obnoxious/ inept and at worst impotent.Since independence Kenyans have not experienced what they have experienced even during KANU era when there was no professionalism in any government sector.Its very disheartening to see our country grinding to a halt due to ineffectiveness of some few people. We are surprised that we did not see the Minister of energy and his senior staff resign. But this is Kenya.

Even though we are cognizant of the fact that world fuel prices have gone beyond the roof,the prices in Kenya does not reflect that. Greed and indolence seems to be the order of the day in this lucrative oil industry. Its very unfortunate for the ministry of energy to have to  wait for the president to intervene so that thing could normalize. This just shows the level of ineffectiveness in some sectors of our government.

Its is very bad that our leaders have reduced our country to the level where we act when there is an emergency. Its shows levels of lack of proper planning and strategic focus.But where did the rain start beating us?In USA for example the government buys a lot of oil when the cost is not prohibitive and store it in large reserves. Through this the government is able to cushion the citizens from the volatile international prices. Kenya should adopt this idea and empower Kenya National Oil Corporation. The other action the government should take is to source the product directly from oil producing countries.A  government to government involvement.This will reduce high cost due to cartels and unnecessary brokers. Lastly the government need to liberalize the market and allow anybody who can bring the product the leeway.This will allow competition and hence price reduction.

A thorough audit in the oil industry is crucial to clean it up.Politicians should not be allowed to have any interest in such an important sector as this makes it hard to streamline the sector.Its time a careful overhaul is implemented in the oil industry if we are to avoid a repeat of high cost and lack of gasoline in petrol stations