President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed maize millers to lower the retail price of a 2kg bag of maize flour to Sh100, down from the current Sh205, across the country.
He said the import declaration fee (IDF) and the Railway Development Levy on all imported maize have been suspended adding that the government will pay Sh105 per packet of 2kg maize flour in subsidy.
While addressing the nation from State House on the high cost of living on Wednesday, President Kenyatta clarified that the move is meant to lower the cost of living for vulnerable households, even as a sustainable solution is being sort.
“These subsidies are meant to lessen the cost of living for vulnerable households as we look for solutions to the recurrent rising price of items every election,” said President Kenyatta.
He also challenged politicians to cease from politicising the plight of vulnerable Kenyans for political millage.
“My appeal to the political class is to exercise civic responsibility. To politicise the pain of the vulnerable without offering solutions is to mock the lifestyle of the same voters the politicians are appealing to,” he said.
He also pointed out that there seems to be a trend where the price of maize flour shoots up whenever there is a General Election in the country.
“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,” the President said.
“In July 2012, months to the March 2013 election, the price of a packet of 2kg of unga shot up from Sh70 to Sh130. In May 2017, three months to the 2017 election, the price of unga shot to an unprecedented high of Sh189.
“Today, months to the August 2022 election, the price of unga has shot up again… from a price that is affordable of Sh100 to Sh210,” he added.
The address comes a day after UDA party presidential running mate Rigathi Gachagua claimed that the government is only trying to reduce prices so as to entice Kenyans into voting for the Azimio political outfit affiliated with the President.
President Uhuru Kenyatta presser on cost of living
