What will the poor eat now?

Since 2014, Mr Stephen Mutunga, a resident of Kabiria, Dagoretti, has headed to his ‘kibanda’ eatery near Prestige Mall, Nairobi, to toil for his family of four.

An ambitious man who dreams of owning a home, he has run his business carefully and dealt with hurdles that come his way firmly, to provide for his family and save enough money for their future.

In the past few years, however, life has become tough for Mr Mutunga due to the rising cost of living that has shattered the pursuit of his dream, diverted his ambition, and weakened his ability to meet basic needs.

Struggling to provide

The businessman who once made Sh1,500 daily in profits from his roadside eatery now says his earnings have reduced to a mere Sh500 at best, and sometimes nothing. High prices of basic food commodities, he says, have hit him hard at home and at work and have left him struggling to provide for his family.

“My earnings have greatly reduced because prices of food commodities have gone up. I rely on these products in my business daily and so any changes hit me directly. While income has stayed the same, you go to a shop and find that increased prices of commodities drain much of what would have been my profits.

“At home, I used to spend Sh2,000 for a month-long shopping. Now shopping of at least Sh4,000 is barely enough,” Mr Mutunga says.

Painting a picture of how high food prices have affected his, and millions of other poor Kenyans’ lives, the father of four told Nation that while just few years ago a loaf of bread cost between Sh40-Sh45, the same is now retailing at up to Sh60, cooking oil which he would get at Sh120 a litre has more than doubled to upwards of Sh300 and tomatoes that he would get four big ones at Sh20, now sell up to Sh10 each.

An average of seven kilos of meat is consumed at his eatery daily, meaning, he now spends an extra Sh700 after prices shot up from Sh300 a kilo to up to Sh400 a kilo at the slaughterhouse. A sack of charcoal, which cost Sh1,500, now sells at Sh3,300, making food-making an costly affair.

Citizenry hurting

A look at retail prices for critical household food commodities shows that high prices have left the citizenry, most of them living in poverty, hurting, and more Kenyans at risk of sliding farther into poverty.

A majority are already living just a shock away from extreme poverty.

The price of 2kg packet of maize flour is currently retailing at between Sh115 and Sh145, a litre of cooking oil between Sh326 and Sh346, a kilo of sugar between Sh124 and Sh138, and a kilo of rice between Sh170 and Sh297.

But the devil is in the detail. While prices of large amounts of the commodities are cheaper, the smaller the quantity, the more expensive it is.

For instance, while a 10kg pack of Pembe maize flour costs Sh630, half of that product is selling at Sh325 at local supermarkets. While a 2kg pack of Kabras sugar is selling at Sh245, a kilo of the product is selling at Sh132, and while two litres of Golden Fry cooking oil is selling at Sh637, half a litre of the commodity costs Sh188.

The above variations imply that a person buying in small portions pays between three and 18 per cent more than one buying larger quantities.

“Prices of all products that we use at home daily have gone up and it’s even worse when we’re buying at small kiosks since it’s more expensive. Yet most of the times, the only money left is too little to afford buying in wholesale,” Mr Mutunga said.

Inflation

Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics also shows that basic commodity prices have been rising in the past few years, even as food and fuel inflation continue to strongly hit the country’s economy.

Ugali is Kenya’s staple food and a majority of the poor who consume it on a daily basis partake the meal with sukuma wiki. Yet as the price of a 2kg pack of maize flour has increased by 42 per cent from Sh101 in 2017 to at most Sh145 currently, the price of a kilo of sukuma wiki has also gone up by 60 per cent since 2015, from Sh37.1 to Sh59.36 by January 2022.

Prices of beef-with-bone, which is also largely consumed alongside ugali, has risen from Sh397 in 2015 to Sh600 currently, representing a 51 per cent increase.

And while the national data repository agency only reported cooking oil prices in December 2020 and December 2021 when they started sky-rocketing, its research showed that over the year, the average price of  the product rose 47 per cent, from Sh206 to Sh303. Cooking oil is currently selling up to Sh346.

Finance-related emergencies

Faced by this reality, many Kenyans have had their lives take a downward trajectory, with the high prices hitting them where it hurts most. Many are exposed to finance-related emergencies.

“Formerly, it was possible to afford clothes monthly or every two months, but now I go up to a year without buying clothes for me or my family because there is no money. When things get this hard, you have to shelve some of the things that are not necessities, like saving. Any money coming now must first go to buying food, paying rent, school fees and clothing in that order,” Mr Mutunga said.

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