State must do more to ease cost of living

A woman with a child on her back sells roasted maize to her customers. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

This year’s Labour Day comes at a time when Kenyans are enduring one of their most difficult times.

The cost of living has shot up, made worse by prolonged drought, high fuel prices amid a shortage, and lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is hardly anything to celebrate, other than the resilience of the Kenyan worker to overcome the challenges that seem to pile up by the day, especially in the wake of reduced incomes in the last two years.

A survey by Central Bank of Kenya, Financial Sector Deepening Kenya and the Government statistician showed that livelihoods of 73.6 per cent of Kenyan households worsened last year compared to 51 per cent in 2019.

Essential food items such as cooking oil and milk are almost out of reach for many households, with the rate of price increase recorded at over six per cent in April.

Amidst this, many jobs are being lost while few are created as businesses struggle to stay open in a challenging environment. Young people are finding it hard to get employment after college, and many are living from hand to mouth on casual engagements.

This cannot continue.

The Government must take concrete steps to reverse the situation.

It might be too late for Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration to do anything tangible only a few months to its exit, but the next president has his work cut out. The front runners, Deputy President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga, in the August presidential race have proclaimed different economic theories that they will use to turn the country’s fortunes around.

They will need to do more than talk.  

Yesterday we buried former President Mwai Kibaki, who was praised for his policies that spurred economic growth in the 10 years he was in power, and his unwavering focus on making life better for the common mwananchi. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data, by the end of the President Kibaki’s first term in office, students in public primary schools had started learning free of charge, the number of public universities was increasing, infrastructure plans were being implemented and economic growth had shot up to 7.1 per cent.

The next government could borrow some of his policies to ensure that its citizens have the means to earn a decent wage and uplift their livelihoods. Official data shows workers’ real wage did not grow by more than 3.2 per cent between 2013 and 2020.

A hungry workforce cannot drive the country to the prosperity that it desires.