State to release confiscated ethanol to produce sanitisers

Bernard Gitau and Reuben Mwambingu

The government yesterday stepped in to alleviate the acute shortage of hand sanitisers by providing free supply as it enhances the fight against spread of coronavirus.

In a statement, Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua said already 396,000 litres of ethanol, which had been confiscated at various ports and customs offices, was released to specific oil companies to manufacture sanitisers for free distribution to the public.

“Corporations in the oil industry have agreed to volunteer to produce the sanitisers to meet the rising demand,” he said. Some of the firms will, manufacture the sanitisers, include Vivo, Total and Ola.

The move comes amid uproar and uncertainty from the public, who cannot afford the sanitisers whose cost has skyrocketed beyond their reach. The commodity is in short supply because of high demand and hoarding by some traders.

Kinyua said the sanitisers will be distributed for free to Kenyans as part of the government measures to control the spread of coronavirus.

He directed that the ethanol be released to the Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC) which will, in turn, liaise with the oil industry players for expedited manufacture and distribution.

“Kenya Pipeline Company will utilise an accountability framework for the manufacture and distribution of the sanitisers,” said Kinyua.

He said the release of the ethanol  will be overseen by a Multi-Agency Team (MAT) comprising Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Director of Public Health (PHA), Director of Criminal Investigations(SCI), Kenya Ports Authority(KPA) and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The 396,000 litres of ethanol was confiscated from companies in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Burundi.

Some of those firms, include Base Oil (Kilindini), Vinyl Acetate (Kilindini), Ethyl Alcohol (DRC), Pharmaceutical Liquid (Burundi) and Oceans International U (Uganda).

Meanwhile, 18 containers which were part of the contraband ethanol impounded by KRA were yesterday released from Mombasa and taken to KPC depot.

The ethanol will be handed over to a number of oil companies which have been tasked with the duty of manufacturing the sanitisers, according to KRA officials, who spoke to People Daily in confidence.

A multi-agency team of officials led by KRA commissioners and Kenya Ports Authority head of operations Captain William held a meeting at the port of Mombasa to strategies on the modalities of manufacturing, packaging and transport the commodity.

“The manufacturing of the sanitisers is supposed to start as soon as possible.

As we speak now a meeting is going on…the information we are getting is that the president is supposed to come and flag off the sanitisers once they are produced,” said a source at KRA.

According to KRA, the containers, detained at the port, were part of the consignment which was impounded over the years.

On Tuesday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe called on members of the public to use soap and water to tame the spread of deadly respiratory flu as away of bringing down the skyrocketing prices of the sanitisers.

“If you use soap then definitely you will bring down the demand, hence automatically lowering the prices,” he said.

Even with CS call for the public to use water and soap, United Nation Development Programme 2019 report,  indicates that 19 million Kenyans do not have access  to safe water for drinking and domestic use.

The Prices of sanitisers have been escalating with some retail outlets taking advantage of the desperate customers to charge more.

Yesterday, one of those, Clean Shelf Supermarket, in Nairobi, was not lucky after the Competitions Authority of Kenya (CAK) visited one of its outlets and ordered it to refund their customers the extra cash they had charged. 

The retailers normally sells 500ml Tropikal hand sanitiser at Sh800, but had hiked the price to Sh1,000. By the CAK pounced, the supermarket had sold 960 pieces of the hand sanitisers.

According to KRA the containers which were being detained at the port of Mombasa were part of the consignment which was impounded over the years.

On Tuesday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe had called on members of the public to use soap and water in order to bring down the skyrocketing prices of the sanitisers.

“If you use soap then definitely you will bring down the demand, hence automatically lowering the prices,” Kagwe said.

Even with CS call for the public to use water and soap, United Nation Development Programme 2019 report, 19 million Kenyans do not access at least basic drinking water sources.

This indicates they were using unsafe water for consumption.

Prices of sanitisers have been going up with some retail outlets like the clean shelf supermarket being ordered by CAK to refund their customers they had overcharged.

Cleanshelf Supermarkets normally retails 500ml Tropikal hand sanitiser at Sh800.

On March 15, 2020, the Authority has established, the supermarket sold the products above the normal retail price up to Sh1000.

CAK ordered the supermarket to refund the customers who had purchased 960 pieces of the hand sanitisers.