Fuel prices in Kenya

Fuel Prices in Kenya: What You Pay at the Pump and Why

As of late June 2026, a litre of petrol in Kenya costs about $1.643, while diesel runs slightly higher at $1.712 per litre. In local terms that is roughly 212.8 KES per litre, and converted to the unit many drivers abroad think in, around $6.22 per US gallon. That puts Kenya just above the global average pump price of $1.484 per litre, and ranks the country 107th out of 170 nations tracked — meaning fuel here is more expensive than in most of the world, despite Kenya being a relatively modest-income economy.

Why Kenyan fuel is pricier than you'd expect

The single biggest reason is that Kenya imports virtually all of its refined fuel. The country has no operating crude refinery (the Mombasa refinery shut its conversion operations years ago), so every litre of petrol and diesel arrives by sea, is stored, transported inland, and marked up along the way. Landlocked neighbours like Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan actually rely on the same Mombasa supply chain, which is why Kenyan prices ripple across East Africa.

On top of import costs sit a thick layer of taxes and levies. Excise duty, VAT (currently charged on fuel), the Road Maintenance Levy, the Petroleum Development Levy, the Railway Development Levy and the Import Declaration Fee together account for a large share of the retail price. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) publishes a maximum pump price every month, recalculated from the latest cargo costs, the shilling-dollar exchange rate, and those fixed levies — so prices in Kenya move in monthly steps rather than daily swings.

The shilling factor and the subsidy question

Because fuel is bought in US dollars but sold in shillings, the KES/USD exchange rate matters enormously. When the shilling weakened sharply in 2023, pump prices climbed even when global crude was flat — and the country's all-time high of $1.691 per litre fell on 16 October 2023, right in the thick of that currency slide. By contrast, the record low of $0.66 per litre on 18 May 2020 came during the COVID demand collapse, when crude briefly cratered worldwide.

Over the full sampled history from July 2016 to June 2026, Kenya averaged about $1.093 per litre. Today's $1.643 sits well above that long-run mean, confirming a clear upward trend driven by a stronger dollar, higher taxes, and the removal of the costly fuel subsidy that the government scrapped to ease pressure on public finances. Kenya did run a stabilisation subsidy through the Petroleum Development Levy fund during 2021–2022, but it became fiscally unsustainable and was wound down, exposing motorists to the full market price.

How Kenya compares globally

Kenya's prices look high for a developing economy, but they are still far below Europe. Compare them with Spain or the tiny enclave of San Marino, where heavy fuel taxation pushes pumps even higher. Among developing and resource-linked economies, Kenya tracks closer to import-dependent markets like Costa Rica, while oil-producing nations such as Chile show how domestic supply and tax policy reshape the final number. To see where Kenya sits on the full ladder, browse the complete table of world fuel prices.

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