On the morning of thirtieth April 2026, Commerce Cupboard Secretary Lee Kinyanjui issued a one-page press launch that obtained virtually no public consideration. It introduced a “momentary adjustment of gas requirements” for six months. Buried within the third-to-last paragraph was the precise resolution: the sulphur ceiling for petrol and diesel offered in Kenya shall be raised to 50mg/kg, up from the 10mg/kg ceiling set below the brand new KS EAS 177:2025 (diesel) and KS EAS 158:2025 (petrol) requirements.
That’s not a small adjustment. It’s a five-fold enhance within the legally permitted sulphur content material of the gas going into your automobile. It rolls Kenya’s gas high quality again to the place it stood in 2015, when the East African Group first adopted what was then known as “low sulphur” gas. The world has moved on. The waiver strikes us again.
The Ministry’s said purpose is the struggle within the Center East and disruption of delivery by the Strait of Hormuz. That purpose is actual, however it is usually incomplete. To know what is definitely occurring, you want three items of context that the press launch doesn’t offer you.
Context one: the costs have already damaged data
Two weeks in the past, on 14th April, EPRA introduced the steepest single-cycle gas value bounce in Kenya’s historical past. Diesel rose by KES 40.30 per litre and petrol by KES 28.69. Even after President Ruto intervened the next day and slashed VAT from 16% down to eight%, Nairobi pump costs settled at KES 197.60 for tremendous petrol and KES 196.63 for diesel — the best the nation has ever seen. We coated the chaotic 24-hour VAT U-turn right here.
Households are already absorbing a transport shock. Matatu fares have climbed. The price of shifting meals to market has climbed. And the following EPRA evaluate on 14th Might shall be calculated on cargoes landed in the course of the very window when the Strait of Hormuz disruption is at its peak. At the moment’s requirements waiver is, partially, the federal government quietly admitting that it can not get clear gas into the nation at a value the political system can survive.
Context two: the bad-fuel scandal continues to be reside
In early April, three of Kenya’s most senior petroleum officers resigned in a single weekend after the DCI uncovered what seems to be like an organised scheme to manufacture a gas scarcity and slip a substandard cargo into the nationwide pipeline. The petroleum PS, the EPRA Director Normal, and the Kenya Pipeline MD all stepped down. The cargo on the centre of the scandal, aboard the MT Paloma, allegedly carried gas with sulphur at 0.0043% (43mg/kg), in opposition to the authorized restrict of 10mg/kg, plus benzene and manganese effectively exterior specification, based on The Each day Nation’s investigation.
Learn that determine rigorously. The gas that triggered arrests, resignations, and a prison investigation had a sulphur stage of 43mg/kg. The waiver issued at present permits 50mg/kg. In different phrases, the cargo that was unlawful three weeks in the past could be authorized below at present’s guidelines. This can be coincidence. It might not. It’s, on the very least, a undeniable fact that the Ministry’s press launch doesn’t deal with.
Context three: that is the G2G deal failing in actual time
Kenya’s Authorities-to-Authorities gas import framework, signed in 2023 with Saudi Aramco, ADNOC, and ENOC, was presupposed to insulate Kenya from precisely this type of provide shock. The pitch was that bulk sovereign procurement on 180-day credit score would ship steady gas and steady costs. As a substitute, Kenya now has the costliest petrol in East Africa — Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia are all cheaper — and the framework’s first actual stress take a look at has produced a high quality disaster, a procurement scandal, and now a regulatory rollback. If the G2G deal labored as marketed, at present’s waiver wouldn’t be crucial.
What 50mg/kg sulphur really does to your automobile
Right here is the half that impacts you immediately.
Trendy petrol and diesel engines are constructed round emissions management techniques that assume clear gas. Each used automobile imported into Kenya since 2022 has needed to meet the Euro 4 customary or higher. Many imports from Japan and Europe are Euro 5 or Euro 6, as a result of that’s what these markets promote. These autos have, relying on engine kind:
Three-way catalytic converters (petrol)Diesel oxidation catalysts and Diesel Particulate Filters, or DPFs (diesel)Oxygen sensors (lambda sensors) that learn the exhaust to fine-tune combustionSelective Catalytic Discount techniques, or SCR, on newer diesels
Sulphur is the first poison for all of them. The Worldwide Council on Clear Transportation, in its examine of 50ppm sulphur gas affect on Euro VI autos, paperwork a cascading failure sample. Sulphur poisons the diesel oxidation catalyst, which then dumps unburnt hydrocarbons into the DPF, which then overheats throughout regeneration and may fail catastrophically. Changing a DPF on a typical European diesel SUV prices greater than KES 200,000 in elements alone. Catalytic converters on petrol automobiles should not less expensive. Oxygen sensors fail sooner. Engine oil thins out as a result of sulphur merchandise contaminate it in the course of the energy stroke.
For the matatu proprietor working a 2018 Toyota Hiace, this implies shorter service intervals, extra soot, and a gradual erosion of gas financial system. For the new-era automobiles in Nairobi site visitors, it means an actual threat of an costly emissions restore throughout the six-month window. For the Scania and Isuzu vehicles working the Northern Hall, it means the Euro 4 SCR techniques they had been designed round are about to be fed one thing they weren’t engineered for.
The injury is not going to present up instantly. That’s the entice. Sulphur poisoning is cumulative. By the point the warning lights come on, the elements are already gone.
Methods to defend your self over the following six months
There isn’t any excellent mitigation, as a result of Kenyans can not decide out of the nationwide gas provide. However there are sensible steps:
The one most helpful factor diesel drivers can do is drive lengthy sufficient, and quick sufficient, usually sufficient, for passive DPF regeneration to happen. Meaning no less than one journey per week of half-hour or extra above 80km/h. Metropolis-only diesel driving with high-sulphur gas is the quickest path to a clogged DPF.
Shorten your oil change interval. Producers’ service schedules assume the gas matches the usual the automobile was constructed for. With sulphur 5 occasions larger than that, halving the interval is an affordable precaution, significantly for any diesel constructed within the final seven years.
Purchase from main branded stations. The bad-fuel scandal proved that high quality management throughout the availability chain will not be what it must be. Stations affiliated with the bigger oil entrepreneurs have tighter procurement controls than independents.
Watch the dashboard. A DPF warning mild on a diesel, or a check-engine mild brought on by an oxygen sensor fault on a petroleum automobile, are each early alerts. Don’t ignore them. The price of a pressured regeneration at a dealership is a fraction of the price of a substitute.
Petrol drivers must be alert for tough idling, hesitant acceleration, and sudden drops in gas financial system — all indicators of a catalytic converter or oxygen sensor below stress.
The broader value
Kenya was, till at present, on a trajectory towards Euro 6 and 10ppm sulphur, with the Local weather and Clear Air Coalition and UNEP supporting a roadmap to that objective. That roadmap issues as a result of automobile exhaust is the most important supply of city PM2.5 in Nairobi, and PM2.5 is what triggers bronchial asthma assaults, hospitalises kids, and shortens lives. Burning higher-sulphur gas produces sulphur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illness. The waiver is six months lengthy on paper. In atmospheric phrases, the soot it permits shall be in Nairobi’s lungs for significantly longer.
It’ll additionally reward the worst actors out there. The gas adulteration cartels that EPRA has been chasing for years thrive on regulatory gray zones. A waiver that legalises larger sulphur ranges makes their enterprise simpler and the inspectors’ job tougher. If you’re working a scheme that entails reducing diesel with kerosene or promoting export-bound product domestically, at present is an effective day for you.
The Ministry says the waiver shall be reviewed on the finish of six months, or earlier if world situations enhance. That’s the half to look at. Six-month “momentary” measures in Kenyan coverage have a manner of turning into everlasting. The 16% VAT on gas was as soon as a short lived measure too.
For now, the directive stands. The gas shall be dirtier. The engines pays. And the query of whether or not this was disaster administration or cover-up shall be settled, finally, in a courtroom that the nation has not but constructed.
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