{{The government has increased fuel reserves that can last over one and a half months ahead of the upcoming Kenyan elections, Mr Francois Kanimba, Trade and Industry minister has said.}}<\/p>\n
Kenya, which also serves as the main route for most of landlocked countries in East Africa, including Rwanda, is set to go for a General Election tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Some countries have already shown fears of potential import interruption in case violence mars the elections just like it did in 2007. <\/p>\n
According to analysts, if violence occurs, then petroleum products could be scarce, leading to high prices and shortages which will negatively impact the region.<\/p>\n
But minister Kanimba assured Rwandans that the country\u2019s fuel reserves are currently filled with about 29 million litres that can sustain the country for a month and a half.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to assure all Rwandans that they should not be afraid of potential fuel shortage,\u201d the minister said. <\/p>\n
He, however, mentioned that though 50% of Rwandan imports come through Mombasa port, it was not the case with the fuel, noting that 94% of imported fuel enters through Dar es Salaam port in Tanzania. <\/p>\n
For other imports, Mr. Kanimba said government hopes there is no outbreak of violence in the region\u2019s powerhouse. <\/p>\n
\u201cOther imports come through the Mombasa port and if there is violence, we have nothing much we can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rwanda mainly relies on the Northern Corridor, that also serves other countries like Uganda, (Northern) Tanzania, DR Congo and South Sudan, which highlights Kenya\u2019s significance in regional trade.<\/p>\n
Petroleum products sold at the Rwandan market include white fuels (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, various industrial & auto lubricants, etc.); black fuels (bitumen, black oil, etc.) and other petroleum products such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). <\/p>\n
The outgoing Kenyan High Commissioner to Rwanda, Mr Makena Muchiri, recently said although the country experienced violence after the 2007 presidential elections this time, the elections will be peaceful.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to assure all the people that there is nothing to worry about since the government has put in place different measures to ensure that the elections are free and fair.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe business community should carry on with their work and they should not expect any trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2007 post election violence left 1,200 people dead and 600,000 more displaced in weeks of unrest. <\/p>\n
The violence began after clashes between supporters of then rival presidential candidates \u2013 Raila Odinga, the current Prime Minister, and Mwai Kibaki, the incumbent.<\/p>\n
During the fighting a dozen Rwandan and Ugandan traders lost their goods worth $47.5 million and up to now they\u2019re still awaiting compensation despite Kibaki\u2019s order to reimburse them. <\/p>\n
On the compensation, minister Kanimba said he did not have any updates.<\/p>\n
President Kibaki, who has led the country since 2002, will step down after the March 4, General Election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{The government has increased fuel reserves that can last over one and a half months ahead of the upcoming Kenyan elections, Mr Francois Kanimba, Trade and Industry minister has said.}} Kenya, which also serves as the main route for most of landlocked countries in East Africa, including Rwanda, is set to go for a General […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-6274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6274"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=6274"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=6274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}