Nairobi, April 15 -- There is a cruelty to the way economic pain moves in this country. It never touches the ones who designed it. It doesn't inconvenience the man who signed the gazette notice or the one who stood at a podium to explain why it all had to be this way. It lands quietly and without ceremony at the bus stop.

On Wednesday morning, Kenyans woke up to petrol at Sh206.97 a litre in Nairobi and diesel at Sh206.84-Sh28.69 and Sh40.30, respectively, added overnight. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) called it a review. The rest of us call it what it is: another month of choosing which bill doesn't get paid.

By the time most people were still reading about the hike on their phones, the matatu operators were alre...