Worry over the rising cost of living
has forced the government to come up with ways of capping food prices.
A Supplementary Budget will be introduced in Parliament come Tuesday to address the problem which is increasingly becoming a campaign issue for Raila Odinga’s NASA brigade.
The top five commodities whose prices are haunting Kenyans are:
1) Maize flour (unga); the price of a 2kg packet has jumped from Sh110 to between Sh150 and Sh155.
2) Dry maize; a gorogoro (2kg tin) now costs Sh150 from Sh80.
3) Milk; the price of a 500 ml (half litre) packet has increased from Sh42 to Sh65.
4) Sugar; a kilogramme's cost has risen from Sh140 to between Sh165 and Sh190.
5) Rice: 1kg of Pishori rice, mainly sourced from Kirinyaga county, has jumped from Sh120 to Sh170.
Other basic commodities whose prices have also shot up include cooking fat, cereals such as Ndengu, dry beans, tomatoes and potatoes.
On April 12, the Cereal Millers Association announced that the price of unga would drop to between Sh115 and Sh125 per 2kg packet.
Treasury CS Henry Rotich said the government would buy one million bags of maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board.
The prices are yet to change.
Frustrated members of the public took to Twitter with calls for urgent action.
They told President Uhuru Kenyatta that beating NASA flag bearer Raila Odinga in the election was the least of his concerns.
At Jubilee Party's National Delegates Convention at Bomas of Kenya on Saturday, Uhuru promised to implement solutions.
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