Keter and Munyes of Energy and Oil reject Senate summons on rising fuel prices
Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter and his Petroleum & Mining counterpart John Munyes on Tuesday snubbed the Senate Energy Committee summons in which they were to respond to rising fuel prices in the last week.
In his response to the summons, CS Keter said fuel prices were outside the purview of his ministry, as he blamed the oil case.
CS Munyes, who is currently abroad, for his part asked to postpone the Senate committee hearing until Wednesday next week.
Senators criticized the couple for skipping hearings with committee members proposing to raise the issue in front of the entire House on Tuesday afternoon.
“Where does CS Energy have the audacity to say that this affair does not concern it?” We know that the high costs of fuel and electricity are linked. This country is suffering, âsaid Senator Moses Wetangula, a friend of the Committee.
âCS Munyes should have cut short his visit and responded to the summons. When you increase the price of fuel, everything else explodes. “
Meanwhile, Narok Senator Ledama Olekina blamed parliament for its role in passing legislation to increase petroleum taxes, although his views were welcomed by other committee members.
âKenyans are pissed off at the executive, but they should be pissed off at us because we are the ones passing the legislation. As the Senate, for example, we passed the Petroleum Law which resulted in the Petroleum Development Tax, âhe said.
Other members, however, sought to absolve the role of the Senate in passing key tax legislation, insisting that this role falls squarely within the purview of its sister, the National Assembly.
In an interview with Digital CitizenSenate Energy Committee chairman Ephraim Maina said the House would look for a way to reduce taxes and levies on petroleum products to relieve Kenyans from soaring fuel costs which has also had a knock-on effect on the prices of other goods and services.
“We are looking to see where we could legally intervene to control rising fuel costs,” he said.
âPersonally, I cannot say that the tax hit only concerns petroleum products. Look at the prices of unga, wheat flour. Kenyans are even protesting against high school fees. Wananchi wamefinywa pande na pande kila pahali. “
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