The National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani has been blamed for the hiked fuel prices that sparked a lot of protests from Kenyans last month.
According to the Petroleum and Mining CS John Munyes, the Treasury did not release Kshs24 billion from the Petroleum Development Fund meant for cushioning Kenyans against the high petroleum prices.
Munyes said that Kenyans did not incur high costs on petrol and petroleum products between April and August because of the government subsidies.
“Out of the Sh32 billion from the Petroleum Development Fund, we spent Sh8.6 billion in the five months to stabilize fuel prices. We did not receive any money in September,” Munyes told the Senate’s committee on Energy on Monday.
Munyes added that Kenya Revenue Authority collects money for the Fund which is handed to the Treasury for disbursement.
“The National Treasury is best placed to explain why they have not disbursed the money to us. It is for that reason I wanted my National Treasury counterpart to be part of this meeting,” he stated.
Asked whether Kenyans would have paid less for duel if the Treasury would have the money, Munyes answered that, “I only got Sh8.6 billion out of the Sh32 billion. We should have been both before this committee to shed more light on the matter.”
Munyes told the committee that his ministry wrote to the Treasury asking for the money after which the committee asked him to provide the letter.
“We need to be sure that the Ministry of Petroleum wrote to the National Treasury asking for the funds to cushion Kenyans from high fuel prices,” Nominated Senator Petronilla Were said.
The CS was also questioned whether the matter was raised the matter to President Uhuru Kenyatta.
In August, Fuel prices rose to the highest level in Kenya’s history after the government discontinued a subsidy scheme introduced in April to ease public outrage over the high cost of living.
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