High Cost Of Living
March 22, 2022
Kenyans are an angry lot. Everything from gas, cooking oil, cooking flour, sugar, salt, rice, local transport, and generally all basic commodities have increased in price. It started with the increase in fuel, and other commodities soon followed. Many people have not stabilized from the fall-out of Covid, and it is, therefore, tragic that the cost of living has shot up so high, now.
The situation has worsened for the families with the current closure of schools and the children being at home. In Kenya, most households cannot afford three meals in a day. Breakfast and dinner are the most observed meals, but not when the children are home; the children need to eat more frequently, especially the younger ones.
This school holiday is also the circumcision period for most of the boys. With circumcision, comes added expense, as visitors frequent the home of the initiate. According to tradition, it is an offense not to feed the masses during the ceremony. The initiates are kept in the house for eight days. During this time the initiate’s mother cooks for the men who come to check on the initiate, as well as her fellow women who come to congratulate her. After the eight days are over, a big feast is prepared where the community and other family members join in to celebrate the initiate.
Today, with the current hike on food prices, most homes with initiates are only preparing tea and porridge. Pride in being able to host people is not an affordable luxury.
Cooking oil has more than doubled in price. The outcry from Kenyans has been so loud there is tremendous pressure on the government to lower food prices. Many Kenyans have taken to social media asking the government to look at ways to lower food prices; too many household are going without food.
Using the hashtag #lowerfoodprices, Kenyans are voicing concern that the basic food commodities have all gone up. Whenever there is a reduction in certain commodities at the supermarkets, people are limited in the amounts they can buy, individually.
Those living in the slums and in the middle class are really suffering, yet the government has not done anything to change the situation. According to the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), food prices rose by 8.89 percent in January making it hard for thousands of Kenyans to put food on the table.
Since this is an election year, presidential aspirants are using the increase of food items as a campaign tool. Candidates are promising to help reduce food prices once elected to office, but most Kenyans know this is nothing more than a campaign gimmick. Once in power, promises made are quickly forgotten. Citizens today are very wary of fake promises. Candidates spend a lot of money trying to woo voters while millions of Kenyans go to sleep hungry.
Market produce has also increased in price due to the increase in transport from the farms to the towns.
Food scarcity. Many families barely have enough to eat.
Supermarkets entice customers with reduced food prices but not for the commonly used products like cooking oil, sugar, and cooking flour.
‘Reduced’ prices, but still way too high for the common Kenyan.
