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Kenya has experienced a major blow in the past few weeks, increased gas prices and now, major fuel shortage in the past 3 weeks. Motorists have spent hours-long queues and rationing at petrol stations as pumps ran dry. In some stations, motorists are not allowed to buy more than a certain amount. This has been happening because oil dealers stated that they were owed outstanding subsidy payments from the state.
The delay in payments by the government has caused an increment in the wholesale market where the oil majors resell fuel to the smaller independent fuel retailers, who control 40 percent of the market. This has seen the smaller retailers hesitate in buying the expensive fuel, with increased supply of oil majors unable to settle the deficit.
‘If you know any gas station in your area that has fuel, comment with name, location, available fuel,’ the Motorist Association of Kenya said on Twitter in a public appeal to ease congestion at petrol stations.
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Having to move from one petrol station to another can get quite infuriating. With the help of an innovative Kenyan named Gichuho on Twitter, a platform was created where Kenyan motorists can use to find petrol stations that have fuel. The fuel finding tool is a website named Iko Where. The website features a list of petrol stations, locations and more details on whether there is fuel in particular stations.
@Ma3Route A small-small tool for finding fuel in 🇰🇪. The enemy is that little light ⛽️ on your dashboard. Visit https://t.co/vpldzVXACV to find fuel. Tell a friend. #FuelShortageKE pic.twitter.com/n2wcZ2H2IP
— Gichuho wa ikowhere (@gichuho) April 13, 2022
The crowd sourced database has the data sourced by drivers countrywide. All they have to do is input their location, station, fuel type and availability of the fuel. And users can search by county, town, area or road.
If you are looking for fuel in 🇰🇪 visit https://t.co/vpldzVXACV and search by road/area/town. We are overwhelmed by the speed at which Kenyans are sharing data. The enemy is an empty tank! #FuelShortageKE pic.twitter.com/5jV5dkRcD0
— Gichuho wa ikowhere (@gichuho) April 13, 2022
This is a very hard subject for me to talk about. This problem has never been easy for me. I’m worried about every class. So, I decided to play fireboy and watergirl to take my mind off things. Because of this, my mind is less busy and I can learn faster.