State-owned National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) resumes the sale of the subsidised 6kg Gas Yetu cylinders to poor households next month.
Nock said last week it would sell the gas and a cylinder at Sh2,100 compared to an average market price of Sh5,100 to low-income households starting with Nairobi.
“The new rollout is set to begin in Nairobi. We will start the programme in August,” said Nock chief executive Gideon Morintat in a statement.
“We have started filling the cylinders with gas. With the help of the State Department for Interior and Coordination of national government, the beneficiaries will be drawn from households across the 11 sub-counties within Nairobi County.”
The project, which has resumed after stalling for years, is meant to wean poor households from the use of dirty wood fuel.
About 60,000 households in Nairobi will be the immediate beneficiaries in phase one of the project. The rest of the country is set for 1.2 million gas cylinders annually for the next six years.
“Under this project, each of the selected households will receive a 6kg LPG cylinder filled with LPG complete with accessories (a grill and a burner) at a discounted price of Sh2,100 contrary to the prevailing market price of Sh5,100,” said the parastatal.
Nock said 11 distributors, one in each sub-county, will be involved in selling ale of affordable gas to the households.
“The corporation had procured 290 modified 40-foot-high cube containers, one for each constituency to be used as distribution points for the affordable Mwananchi Gas,” said Nock.
“Each of the 11 Nairobi appointed Mwananchi gas distributors has been assigned a container. The containers are located at the Sub-county offices country-wide.”
The exercise was aborted after it emerged that fraudulent contractors supplied faulty gas cylinders, scuttling the plans to provide poor homes with cheaper cooking fuel.
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.
