The Petroleum Outlets Association of Kenya (POAK) and the Kenya Independent Petroleum Dealers Association (KIPEDA) issued a joint communiqué on 27 October urging their members to suspend purchases of petroleum products priced above the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s (EPRA) wholesale caps.

Independent stations, which are not owned by oil marketing companies (OMCs), buy fuel in bulk from OMCs; the associations say OMCs have been selling above the caps since the pricing cycle began on 15 October, leading to stock‑outs at many outlets.

EPRA’s notice for the 15 October–14 November cycle sets Nairobi wholesale caps at KES 211.89 per litre for super‑petrol, KES 212.68 for diesel and KES 204.79 for kerosene, with corresponding pump caps of KES 226.96, KES 227.76 and KES 219.87.

The gap of roughly KES 15 per litre between wholesale and pump prices is intended to cover a dealer margin of KES 12.78 and a delivery allowance of KES 1.18, plus 8 % VAT, leaving little room for OMCs to charge above the cap without squeezing dealer margins.

The associations claim that when an OMC overcharges by KES 5 per litre, a third of the allowable margin disappears, forcing stations to either operate at a loss or shut down, a situation they describe as a “margin squeeze”.

The communiqué does not identify specific OMCs or quantify how many stations are affected, but notes that the dealers raised the issue with EPRA and the State Department for Petroleum on 15 October and had received no enforcement response after 12 days.

EPRA has not publicly responded to the dealers’ complaint, but Director General Edward Kinyua wrote to OMC chief executives on 27 October promising “advance sales compensation” for any excess volumes taken in beyond the volumes factored into the current and next pricing cycles.

The compensation letter, which references verification against Kenya Revenue Authority data, does not address the dealers’ grievance directly but acknowledges a price lag caused by EPRA’s methodology of basing caps on September cargo costs while international prices continue to rise.

Consumers should continue to see the pump caps applied at all stations, but the risk of empty pumps is higher at independent outlets that may be forced to stop buying over‑priced fuel.