The government is set to resume the distribution of mini gas cylinders on Monday. The Ksh3billion project aims as supplying poor households with 6kg cylinders under the Gas Yetu brand – By Prudence Wanza.
The treasury had allocated the 3billion for purchase of the cylinders to be sold at a subsidized price of Ksh2,000 with complete accessories to save families from using dirty sources of fuel.
However, a total of 109,649 kilogram cylinders, 329,422 burners, and 329,260 grills have been stranded at the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) warehouses after the distribution was stopped over a case filed by the Consumer Federation of Kenya(Cofek).
In a report by the Business Daily, the exercise stopped after it emerged that fraudulent contractors supplied 67,251 faulty gas cylinders, scuttling government plans to provide poor homes with cheaper cooking fuel.
Cofek filed a case at the court in October 2018 seeking to stop the distribution of cylinders citing that the gas cylinders were faulty.
Conducting an independent examination of the cylinders currently at the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) warehouses was a precondition for Cofek to withdraw its court case.
The court case has since been dropped after certain conditions were met including bringing on board the third-party cylinder inspector.
Under the Sh3 billion State plan, dubbed the Mwananchi Gas Project, the households were to receive 6kg cooking gas cylinders and burners at a discounted price of Sh2,000.
The market price for the 6kg gas cylinder with cooking accessories is about Sh5,000.
According to a report prepared by Nock, the State oil marketer shows it procured 357,355 cylinders of 6Kg in the 2017/18 financial year, out of which 200,257 were supplied.
Of these, 70 percent (139,946) were inspected where 80,839 cylinders were accepted for circulation while 59,107 cylinders were rejected for being defective.
