President William Ruto left his audience and Kenyans at large in confusion when he announced the rates of electricity charges he intended on introducing at electrical charging stations for motorists.
Speaking during the launch of the Boda Boda Care program at the Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi, the President said he planned to have the cost of electricity charged to motorists who drive electric cars and ride electric motorcycles.
However, in what appeared to be a genuine error in his off-the-cuff remark, President Ruto said electric motorcycle riders will soon be charged $5 dollars which he converted to Sh8.
“The other thing, because I want to explain this to you well. We, as a government, have a plan to ensure that at the charging station – where right now the charges for electricity is between Sh15 and Sh20, Sh25 if it goes higher – we will reduce the cost of the electricity and the highest amount will be Sh8,” President Ruto said.
“From Sh20, we will bring down the cost of electricity at the charging station for your motorcycles to $5 dollars which is about Sh8 because we want to ensure many people transition to electric motorcycles and that it is operated in a manner that is cheaper to operate; so that we can have cheaper transport that is environmentally friendly,” the President explained.
In reality, $5 dollars, at the current exchange rate, is Sh702.15.
At the launch of the health care program, President Ruto also announced that he will have the Value Added Tax surrounding charging stations is removed so that boda boda operators (public service motorcycle operators) can cheaply recharge their lithium batteries.
In the same breath, he said in July 2023, 10,000 electric motorcycles will be imported and another 100,000 bikes will be in the country by December 2023.
“This is the road we are taking. You will be importing motorcycles that use petrol, we will take it and give you the one that uses electricity. I don’t know if we understand each other? As time passes, you will be explained to how this plan will unfold because 1.8 million people are many and our intention is to reduce the amount of petrol we import to operate our cars and motorcycles,” President Ruto said.
“I want you to know we import 60 billion liters of petroleum products per month for our use. We need to reduce the amount of foreign exchange we are using to import petroleum products by ensuring that we transition from fossil fuel motor vehicles and motorcycles to electric motor vehicles and cycles,” he added.
Since Kenya Kwanza came into power, the Kenyan shilling has lost 30 per cent of its value to the Dollar. The Kenyan shilling has also taken a beating from currencies. The Kenyan shilling has lost 10-20 per cent of its value to the Uganda and Tanzania shillings which have for long been considered weaker currencies in East Africa.
