This archive report was first published on 3 August 2020.
On June 6, President Uhuru Kenyatta relaxed Covid-19 restrictions by reducing curfew hours from 7 pm to 4 am to 9 pm to 5 am, leading to a 13% increase in fuel sales in June.
Fuel dealers sold 144 million liters of super petrol and 187 million liters of diesel in the month, with diesel sales increasing by 21.8 million liters and petrol sales rising by 16.7 million liters.
According to Business Daily, public service vehicles cut their trips by almost half after the curfew and movement restrictions were introduced, contributing to low fuel consumption.
However, with the recent change in curfew hours, Matatu chairman association Simon Kimutai notes that capacity guidelines to maintain social distancing forces many vehicles to operate at sub-optimal capacity.
“We had a slight relief to operate more, but where are the passengers? They have stayed away due to the fear associated with the social distancing guidelines, and we are hardly operating at 50 percent,” he said.
