You will be able to buy a kilo of beef (with bones) at Sh520, a two-kilo packet of maize flour at Sh205 unless the subsidised one is available, a kilo of rice at Sh202 and a kilo of sukuma wiki at Sh60.
These are only four items and you will be left with Sh18 bob as change, which you can spend on a slice of mutura on your way home.
If you were to buy a kilo of beef and and at least two litres of cooking oil, the one thousand shilling will not be enough.
In January, the same amount could get you a kilo of beef, 2-kgs maize flour, wheat flour, three litres cooking oil, a kilo of sukuma wiki, rice, potatoes, tomatoes and onions.
This is the reality Kenyans are facing as the cost of living (inflation) hit a five-year high of 8.3 per cent at the end of July, just days to the 2022 general elections.
But is there correlation between elections and commodity prices? This seems to be the pattern going by past data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
On July 20 an address after a meeting with millers to have them lower Unga prices, President Uhuru Kenyatta said it was strange that a few months or weeks to general elections in Kenya, maize flour prices always goes up.
The price of a two-kilogramme packet of maize flour had shot up to retail at Sh205, from Sh126 in January.
“Every election in this country has attracted ‘Unga Crisis’. In fact, there seems to be an engineered connection between elections and the high prices of unga,” Uhuru said.
In November 2007, before the general elections, inflation increased to 5.8 per cent from 5.2 per cent a month earlier, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows.
On average, the price of a 400grammes loaf of bread increased by 3.4 percent from Sh 29.36 to Sh30.45.
A kilogram of rice grade 2 increased by 7.1 per cent from Sh45.86 to Sh49.09 while the price of English potatoes increased to Sh27.29 from Sh26.40.
Unga was retailing below the 100 mark but would later reach Sh120.
In July 2012, months before the March 2013 election, the price of a packet of 2kgs of unga shot up from Sh70 to Sh130.
The overall inflation rate increased to 4.45 per cent in February, up from 3.67 per cent in January.
In May 2017, three months to the August 2017 election, maize flour prices again shot to a high of Sh189, with President Uhuru noting that the “crisis was used as the fuel that powered the ambitions of certain members of the political class.”
Ahead of the August 2017 general elections, overall year-on-year inflation rose to 9.21 per cent in June, from 6.9 in January that year.
Last month, a two-kilo of maize flour hit a historic high of Sh205 with prices of other commodities such as cooking oil, soap, vegetables, rice, wheat flour all increasing.
While the Russia-Ukraine war has been blamed for this year’s skyrocketing of foodstuff prices, with drought a factor in previous high food prices, the election cycle has proved to impact on basic commodity prices.
State House has identified hoarding as one of the reasons for price hikes mainly on maize flour, consumed by the majority of households in the country each day.
Other factors are poor rainfall, global inflation and now the war in Ukraine.
Financial Risk Analyst Mihr Thakar also notes: “Relationships with elections appears coincidental at first sight, but it is certainly worth noting that the trend of politicians distributing handouts does increase disposable income among the low income population.”
This, he says, increases the spending power that is chasing limited goods.
The Consumer Federation of Kenya(Cofek)has since accused retailers or arbitrary price hikes as Kenyans increase spending on selected items.
It has also blamed the high prices on hoarding.
"It is a common trend around elections because of lesser production, limited supplies and fast that over and above, panic purchase," Cofek secretary general Stephen Mutoro said.
The federation has applied to the Competition Authority of Kenya to cushion consumers from “any unnecessary high price burden.”
He said with elections being held next week, there is an expected panic purchasing over the weekend, even though it began about two weeks ago.
The Retail Trade Association of Kenya (Retrak) has however assured Kenyans of sufficient stocks to fit their demand during and after elections.
WATCH: The biggest news in African Business
Francis Mureithi
