President Uhuru Kenyatta has struck Deputy President William Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza brigade where it hurts the most by ordering the prices of Unga, Kenya’s most consumed food slashed down almost by half.
DP Ruto’s brigade has for the last six months capitalized on the ongoing global food crisis to criticize President Kenyatta’s regime as well as his competitors in the Azimio-One Kenya coalition as being behind the current high cost of living, despite it being a global problem.
On July 18, the Ministry of Agriculture directed that the minimum retail price for a two-kilogram packet of maize flour drop from Ksh230 to Ksh100 effective immediately.
Under the new order, a 1-Kilogramme packet would retail for not more than Ksh52 while the 500-gram packet would retail for a maximum of Ksh30. Notably, the reprieve would only be temporary as it would lapse after a month.
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“The Ministry of Agriculture shall subsidise the price of maize flour being produced/sold by the miller for a period of four (4) weeks from the date of this contract,” the statement reads.
Unga prices hit Sh210 for a two-kilo packet, up from Sh120 at the start of the year following crop failure due to poor weather and a shift in the movement of Uganda maize to South Sudan.
This, coupled with global high fuel prices, inflation hit a 58-month high of 7.9 percent last month, breaching the government’s upper limit ceiling, something the administration has been working round the clock to contain.
