UGANDA’s fuel reserves are empty, the Government has announced, as several filling stations in Kampala and the rest of the country have dried up, report Henry Mukasa and Cyprian Musoke.
“The reserves have been used up,” energy state minister Simon D’Ujanga told Parliament yesterday. “It will be trickling in. At the moment we cannot talk about reserves because whatever comes in is being consumed.”
He said the problem, which had persisted for the past two weeks, was due to failure of the pumps between Mombasa and Nairobi to pump the fuel through the oil pipeline.
“Trucks usually pick the fuel from Eldoret town but they now have to go as far as Nakuru and Nairobi,” he explained.
The minister said he had met the Kenya High Commissioner over the problem. “We have asked the Kenyan authorities to allow our trucks to get fuel from Mombasa. It is longer and more expensive,” he said, adding that on Wednesday only 30 trailers were loaded.
As a result of the shortage, fuel prices shot up on Wednesday. The price of petrol increased from sh2,050 to sh2,070 while diesel went from sh1,840 to sh1,860.
Earlier in the month, fuel prices rose from sh1,900 to sh2,050 for petrol and from sh1,700 to sh1,840 for diesel. Kerosene increased from sh1,550 to sh1,600.
The minister responded to concerns raised by Budadiri West MP, Nandala Mafabi, that people driving diesel powered vehicles were getting problems finding fuel. He asked what had happened to the national reserves in Jinja and Kampala.
Tororo county MP Geoffrey Ekanya noted that fuel trucks were jammed and stranded on the Jinja highway between Kakira sugar factory and the bridge up to Wairaka. He attributed the fuel shortage to the lack of alternative supply routes.
“Some of these trucks have fuel. There could be accidents, even fire,” Ekanya warned.
Hood Katuramu asked whether the shortage would not result into hiking of prices by fuel companies. The minister assured that, according to the mechanism with which the fuel companies are monitored, “there is no room for hoarding.”
