Economist David Ndii reveals real cause of current fuel shortage crisis

By Joshua Cheloti Kenya’s renowned economist David Ndii has waded into the ongoing fuel crisis that has hit the country. For the past few months, motorists have been struggling to fuel their vehicles due to the shortage that has seen many petrol stations run out of the commodity. It had earlier been claimed that the shortage was a result of the government failing to release fuel subsidy funds to oil marketers, but even after the money was paid, the situation has not yet changed. The Ministry of Energy has since claimed some oil marketers had illegally exported fuel from the country, leading to the current crisis. It has termed the move economic sabotage, a basis on which Rubis Kenya Managing Director Jean-Christian Bergeron was on Wednesday night deported. But according to David Ndii, the government has itself to blame for the current situation in the energy sector. In a tweet, Ndii, who Telegraph described as ‘one of Africa’s best-known economists and an outspoken anti-corruption crusader’ noted that oil marketers were reluctant to sell fuel because they are the ones that stand to lose. “Funny how a government ran by business people does not seem to understand business. Oil companies are losing money every day they don’t trade—they are incurring costs without revenues. Only reason for not trading is they stand to lose more money if they do,” the economist noted in one of the tweets. “The responsibility for this predicament is none other than the government now heeing and hawing economic sabotage. It is the government that is the saboteur, not business. I don’t recall seeing this level of economic policy incoherence since the last days of the Soviet Union,” he added. The economist points out that the fuel shortage is a result of the recklessness of the government that has been running its businesses. He tagged an opinion piece he wrote about eight years ago, where he warned the government against investing a lot in mega projects. “After a decade of fiscal recklessness, the government seems to think it can keep the chickens from coming home by administrative fiat. @Watimz reported that they are also trying to propping up the shilling by throttling forex demand. Well, you can’t,” David Ndii said. As Kenyans struggle to keep up with the fuel shortage and its impacts, the government through the Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Amb. Monica Juma has yet again assured that things will be back to normal in the next 72 hours.