Soaring prices: Will Yatani offer any relief to ordinary mwananchi?

If you have bought a sachet of Fresh chewing gum of late, you must have noticed that it is no longer Sh5 but Sh6. The same applies to Juicy Fruit that went for Sh20 but is now Sh25.

A 250ml tub of yoghurt that in December 2021 retailed for Sh69 is now Sh72.

Five pieces of sweet potatoes in Kware, a market in Ongata Rongai,  Kajiado County used to retail at Sh50. Now this is sold for Sh100. "There are no potatoes in the market,” Agnes Wambui, a trader told The Standard.

It is the same with Irish potatoes, known as ‘waru’. The ‘kasuku’ tin – a 2kg tin - that a few months ago would go for as low as Sh80 is now going for Sh150.

Be it the Ukraine-Russia conflict, or inflation, or the heated political campaign season, life is becoming unbearable for the common Kenyan.

A tray of eggs retailed at less than Sh300 at some point last year. The same tray now costs more than Sh400.

As National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani reads the Budget today, the question on the lips of most Kenyans would be what effect will the Sh3.31 trillion have on the prices of these essential items?

Compared to last year when the CS read the Budget, some items cost less by almost 40 per cent going by the consumer price indices provided monthly by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

If the respective consumer prices indices are compared between this budget and the last, the cost of cooking gas and cooking oil have increased the most.

For example, in June 2021, one litre of cooking oil was Sh245 while this year, in the latest price index released last month, a litre is Sh332.37. That is a 36 per cent rise.

The price of cooking gas has also risen sharply; with a 13kg cylinder now going for Sh2,866 compared to sh2,074 in March 2021. In some residential areas, the cost to refill is above Sh3,000. The average cost to refill a 6kg gas cylinder is Sh1,350 and only nly a few brands which used to go for less than Sh1,000 retail at about Sh100 less.

While prices of fuel and its shortage have been primarily blamed, most Kenyans cannot understand how even the unexpected commodities like chewing gum, laundry bar soap and tissue paper now cost more.

Even those surviving using the ‘kadogo’ economy are not spared as a 250ml packet of milk that cost Sh25 is now Sh30. A 500ml packet of milk is Sh55; same price as a 400g loaf of bread which once cost Sh50. Unlike other big brands, a 500ml packet from Kinangop Dairy Limited retails at Sh48.

In some supermarkets, there is a 2kg packet of maize flour that retails for less than Sh100, as it was the case last year. The cost of wheat flour has gone through the roof with some brands like Ajab going for Sh181 in certain shops.

According to the consumer price index for March 2022, the average price of wheat flour is Sh151.43 compared to Sh128.68 when Yatani read the Budget in June 2021.