Fuel Problems (Shida ya petrol)

 Dear family,

My apologies for having not written in a while, the past few weeks have been so busy for me! I just got home from a week long summer camp with my students in Kilifi County on the beach (more details to come).

I am writing to share now my frustration with the current situation here in Kenya with regards to fuel. I'm always corrected when I say 'gas' because they say that's in the air and does not go in your tank. 😂 They tell me the proper word is petrol, so I am relearning to say that instead. It is a dead giveaway that I am an American if I say the word gas.

Regardless, right now Kenya is experiencing a severe fuel shortage in the country and it is extremely difficult to fill your tank, and therefore get to and from the places you need to be. Prices are double or triple what they usually are if I want to get somewhere, although the price of fuel itself has not changed that drastically. What you end up paying for is someone's time to sit in line for hours at any one of the gas stations. Just sitting here in the Mombasa fuel station line (located in the biggest city on the coast) it could take us up to one or two hours to get a small water bottle filled for a motorcycle or tuk-tuk. That is also us cutting the line by giving our bottle to someone at the front of the line who has been standing for a while. Let me clarify: I'm referencing myself and the driver I was traveling with, who is also a good friend of mine named Abdul.

There is a line of men with plastic bottles, Jerry cans, jugs, and old oil canisters facing one direction and piling out onto the street; in the other direction is a line of cars, trucks, and tuk-tuks, with motorcycle drivers piling in a huge cluster somewhere in the middle of the chaos. I will include a video and some photos below. One guy got so fed up with the line that he used his canisters to make pillows and a footrest--which made me laugh so hard since it's funny but also not funny.

I have a regular trusted friend (Abdul) that takes me via motorbike to and from where I need to go, but it has been getting fuel that has been a major issue. Typically we have had lately to take the bike as far as we can get, and if there is no fuel, then we hitch a ride on another public transit option to where we need to go. This has been highly inconvenient and frustrating getting to and from school (or like today the immigration office in Mombasa). I'm writing this sitting inside of a tuk-tuk with no petrol, waiting like everyone else for fuel to be distributed.

This really began to set in late this past week while I was at summer camp with the students. Some say this is the shocks being felt from the war currently running between Ukraine and Russia, because Russia is typically a huge supplier of oil for the Kenyan economy. Other folks are saying this is a political ploy from the opposition leader running for presidency this fall and that he has some nice friends in the oil industry who are creating chaos as a political favor to his campaign. It is hard to know what the real case is here, but it does mean the average folks suffer.

I'm slightly nervous watching this crowd because many of them have been waiting all day for fuel and are getting impatient. I don't want to see an angry mob break out over fuel and I'm sitting in the middle of it in a small open air vehicle. But what can we do, we need fuel for the bike to get home tonight. Previously leaving the bike outside has lead to vandalism in the past (like broken mirrors or a punctured tire) so we are keen to avoid that situation as well.

I'm going to sign off for now because our line leader is finally giving us a small portion of his fuel! Hooray it is time to head home, I will write some more another day.

Cheers,

Andi