Protests over fuel \u200cprice hikes prompted by the Iran war erupted in several Kenyan towns on Monday, including a nationwide public transport strike that stranded commuters and forced many people to walk to work.<\/p>\n
The Transport Sector Alliance \u200bsaid on Sunday that vehicles affiliated with its member associations would stop operating \u200bfrom midnight in protest at the latest price increase, while police said they \u2060would act to tackle any disruptions.<\/p>\n
Kenya’s Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority last week\u00a0raised\u00a0retail \u200bfuel prices by as much as 23.5% – after\u00a0hiking\u00a0them by 24.2% last month – as the \u200bconflict in the Middle East squeezes global oil and gas supplies.<\/p>\n
On Monday morning, roads into the capital Nairobi were blocked by striking transport operators and scattered groups of protesters.<\/p>\n
Police fired tear gas in some areas \u200bwhile some protesters lit tyres to cut access to key roads, worsening congestion and \u200bleaving many commuters stranded.<\/p>\n
In Mombasa, Kenya’s main port city, the strike raised fears of supply-chain delays.<\/p>\n
Finance \u200cMinister John \u2060Mbadi told the Citizen TV station that the finance ministry and energy ministries hoped to meet public transport operators later on Monday to discuss a solution, noting that the current prices were already subsidised.<\/p>\n
Kenya imports nearly all its fuel products from the Middle East via \u200bgovernment-to-government deals with \u200bGulf suppliers. The fuel \u2060price hike has sharply raised transport fares and pushed up the cost of basic goods, deepening pressure on households already struggling with \u200bthe high cost of living.<\/p>\n
Public relations worker Gabriel Odhiambo, 24, said \u200bhis transport \u2060costs had doubled and that food prices had also risen. Four tomatoes now cost 60 shillings (50 U.S. cents) – a threefold increase.<\/p>\n
Kenya raised the pump price of super petrol in Nairobi to \u2060214.25 Kenyan \u200bshillings ($1.66) a litre from 206.97, and diesel to 242.92 \u200bshillings from 196.63 for the May 15-June 14 cycle, while kerosene was unchanged at 152.78 shillings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Protests over fuel \u200cprice hikes prompted by the Iran war erupted in several Kenyan towns on Monday, including a nationwide public transport strike that stranded commuters and forced many people to walk to work. The Transport Sector Alliance \u200bsaid on Sunday that vehicles affiliated with its member associations would stop operating \u200bfrom midnight in protest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,32,2362],"tags":[1257,3254,1867,5151],"class_list":["post-20903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-economy","category-featured","tag-iran","tag-john-mbadi","tag-middle-east","tag-transport-sector-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20905,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20903\/revisions\/20905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}