Nairobi, April 8 -- French-owned Rubis was the only multinational that grew its market share between July and December last year, narrowing the gap between it and rivals TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya and Vivo Energy in the battle for customers.

An analysis of official data shows that Rubis increased its market share to 14.05 percent in December from 12.43 percent in June last year.

TotalEnergies' market share dropped to 14.88 percent from 15.54 percent while that of Vivo marginally fell to 22.07 percent from 22.1 percent over the same period.

The three multinationals are caught in a vicious battle for the local petroleum market but they all took a hit last year after consumption dropped amid record-high prices of Super petrol, diesel a...