Kenyan car owners and other motorists living near the country’s border with Tanzania have started the year 2025 with driving scrambles to fuel their equipment at the neighbor’s pump stations.
As it happens, average pricing of petroleum based fuel seems to be much cheaper in Tanzania, compared to the other countries in the East African Region, such as Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
It will cost an arm and leg to fuel your car in Kenya, the East African country where prices of gasoline and diesel happen to be the highest.
It costs an average 176 Kenyan Shillings (USD 1.3), to buy a liter of gasoline anywhere in Kenya, though again, the pricing is subjected to change upwards depending on​ a particular location ​in the country as well as commodity availability.
Motorists whose vehicles are powered by Diesel are forced to fork out a minimum of 165 Kenyan shillings (USD 1.28) for a liter of the fuel at any pump station.
It therefore explains why transit truckers and cross-country bus drivers traversing the region wait until they are in Tanzania before they fuel their vehicles
By comparison, one liter of gasoline in Tanzania costs an average of USD 1.1, which should be equivalent to 146 Kenyan Shillings.
On the other hand, the pump price for a liter of diesel anywhere in Tanzania reads just USD 1.0, which translates into 138 Kenyan Shillings, nearly 30 shillings less than what motorists pay in Nairobi.
In Uganda, the pump charges per one liter of gasoline stands at Kenyan shillings 169, ten shillings less than what motorists pay for the same in Kisumu but still more than 20 shillings higher equated to the pricing in Mwanza, Tanzania.
Rwanda is slightly better than both Kenya and Uganda, because in Kigali a liter of Gasoline goes at the equivalent of Kenya shillings 152, while diesel costs Ksh 138 per liter, quite cheap but still expensive compared to Tanzania.