Business of air: Why BOC is no longer breathing easy

BOC Kenya Managing Director Marion Mwangi.

As Kenya battles an oxygen crisis, the weight of expectation hangs over the country’s oldest gas firm BOC Kenya.

And for more than a year now, the firm’s plants have run almost nonstop and imports of medical grade oxygen to keep up with rising demand amid the coronavirus pandemic rise.

As of March 2020, when the country reported the first case of coronavirus, demand for medical oxygen doubled to 880 tonnes monthly, compared to a month earlier.