Kenyans grapple with steep prices of commodities amid outcry

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 28 – Sharon Maimuna inches along the aisles of a supermarket some 20 minutes drive from the central district. Her face flinches after stopping at the cooking oil section and glancing at the prices.

In more than a year now, the mother of one has been growing exceedingly edgy with every trip made to the supermarket all thanks to the unrelenting increase in the price of basic goods.

“My outlook of life is not looking good at the moment because of how expensive everything has become. I am struggling in all areas, food, rent, and transport. Things are just bad,” a dejected Maimuna told Xinhua on Saturday.

For many Kenyans, Maimuna’s situation is woefully relatable.

The cost of essential products such as 2-kilogram maize flour used to make the country’s staple meal of Ugali has gone up by 8 percent between January 2021 and January 2022. A litter of edible oils has risen by 30 percent, with sugar, gas (LPG), and other fuels having similar increments.

The steep rise of these commodities has cast a cloud of discomfort and gloom on low-paid workers and indigents.

Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said that the annual inflation stood at 8.89 percent in January.

Universal events and local affairs are said to be pushing inflation. On a global scale, supply chain systems are still shrugging off the effects of the pandemic. As these systems recover, they have been met by high demands and depressed supply.

For instance, the production of palm oil from key markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia faced weather challenges and a labor force crunch due to pandemic-related implications. Kenya imports 95 percent of its edible oils.

Similarly, the expensive cost of crude oil globally continues to be felt by local motorists and industries alike.

In the local context, the elevated cost of farm inputs, extreme weather events in rich food-producing regions, sporadic community conflicts, and steep tax regimes has occasioned the upward change in the price of goods.

Maimuna laments over her unchanging income in the back of this new economic reality. “I work in an export processing zone (EPZ) where I make just enough for my daily needs, the company has not increased our earnings despite the cost of living going up and business improving,” said Maimuna, expressing a disquietness she harbors over the possibility of losing her job.

This is after witnessing layoffs in the hundreds since the onset of the pandemic. For the Kenyans working in the informal sector, the looming fear of being declared redundant and plunging into complete poverty is omnipresent.

“Right now, 0.88 dollars cannot get you bread and milk. A typical Kenyan will use the average cost of breakfast as a benchmark for inflation. If 0.88 dollars fails to take care of bread and milk the country is in crisis,” said Margaret Wambui, a vegetable seller in Nairobi.

An intervention from the government at the close of last year saw the government promise to lower the cost of electricity. Kenya aims to cut power costs by up to 30 percent by the end of 2022 which will enable consumer costs to drop from an average of 0.21 dollars per kilowatt-hour to about 0.15 dollars.

Despite these measures, the populace is still feeling the heat. A week ago, troves of Kenyans took to social media where they sustained a hashtag calling for price cuts.

“When my family decided to revert to cooking fat from liquid cooking oil we thought we were retaining some money in the pocket only to be hit harder. The traditional cooking fat is extraordinarily expensive with a kilogram hitting 2.64 dollars from 1.58 dollars,” said a social media user.

“Families are going through hell from rent, food, clothing to fare, life has become unbearable,” Evans Miloo tweeted.

More than 740,000 Kenyans lost their jobs due to the global health crisis according to the KNBS report. The number of employed Kenyans fell to 17.4 million from 18.1 million by the close of 2020.

The report further added that some 543,000 jobs were lost in the informal sector in 2020. This sector employs over 80 percent of the Kenyan workforce.

With a raging drought that has affected at least 3 million Kenyans, it remains to be seen whether there lies a foreseeable conclusion to the threat to food security.