NAIROBI, Kenya — The next time you fill up your tank in Kenya, part of that fuel could come from a sugarcane farm in Western Kenya or a cassava field in the Coast. That is the vision behind Kenya’s new biofuel blending programme — and the government says it is now moving from paper to reality.
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum are rolling out the Energy (Biofuels) Regulations, 2025, gazetted in December last year, which provide the legal framework for blending locally produced bioethanol into Kenya’s regular petrol supply. The programme will be introduced in phases, starting with E5 fuel — petrol containing 5 per cent bioethanol — before scaling up to E10, which contains 10 per cent.
To kickstart the rollout, EPRA convened a high-level stakeholder consultation bringing together oil marketers, ethanol producers, manufacturers, logistics companies, and regulators to assess infrastructure readiness and coordinate implementation across the fuel supply chain.
EPRA Acting Director General Dr. Eng. Joseph Oketch made clear why the timing matters.
“The Biofuels Regulations provide Kenya with an important opportunity to strengthen energy security while building new local industries around agriculture, manufacturing, and renewable energy,” Oketch said. “As we scale domestic bioethanol production and structured blending, we can gradually reduce exposure to external fuel shocks while creating new opportunities for farmers, investors, manufacturers, and other players across the value chain.”
The case for acting now is compelling. Global oil markets remain volatile due to geopolitical tensions, and Kenya’s fuel import bill has continued to squeeze households, businesses, and the transport sector. Against that backdrop, producing part of the country’s fuel locally — from crops like sugarcane molasses, maize, cassava, and sorghum — offers a buffer against price shocks that no external deal can fully guarantee.
But Kenya is not starting from scratch. The country already has ethanol processing plants in place. The problem, as Eng. Isaac Kiva, Secretary for Renewable Energy, pointed out, is that they are running far below capacity.
“Kenya’s ethanol plants can process 83 million litres a year, yet we currently produce only 26.5 million litres,” Kiva said. “Scaling domestic bioethanol production will be important not only for supporting cleaner transport fuels, but also for expanding clean cooking solutions, strengthening local industry, and reducing costly fuel imports.”
That gap — 56.5 million litres of untapped capacity — represents a significant economic opportunity. Stakeholders at the consultation noted that a fully operational blending programme could create new markets for smallholder farmers, stimulate investment in agro-processing, generate green jobs in rural areas, and reduce the country’s annual fuel import expenditure.
Countries that have walked this path before — Brazil, India, the United States, Thailand, and South Africa — have demonstrated that biofuel blending can work at scale, cutting both oil dependence and emissions simultaneously.
For Kenya, the opportunity is ready and waiting. The regulations are in place. The plants exist. The crops grow here. What remains is execution.
