High Cost of Living in Kenya

Many Kenyans on social media are protesting about the high cost of living in Kenya. This has been driven by a spike in the cost of commodities like food, electricity, and fuel. The #lowerfoodprices has been going around on social media of late.

The high cost of living in Kenya is only adding misery to the people of Kenya. The pandemic affected the country’s economic sectors. The Covid-19 hit tourism and export negatively. This contributed to Kenya losing its Kenyan shilling value by about 6% since May 2021.

Research done by Research 8020 found that Kenyans were very vocal on social media, about their frustrations. This is due to the fluctuations in food prices that were hurting both the consumers and suppliers. Kenyans went ahead and shared a shopping list specifying how prices of basic needs have increased progressively in recent months.

In January 2022 there was food inflation of 8.89% . The overall decline in inflation rate for the second straight month to 5%. This is according to the Kenya National Bureau Statistics(KNBS) Monthly Consumer Price Index.

The new adjustments announced on 14th March 2022 by Energy Petroleum Regulatory Authority https://www.epra.go.ke/maximum-retail-petroleum-prices-in-kenya-for-the-period-15th-march-to-14th-april-2022/ about reviews made on fuel prices, which will go up by KES 5, got Kenyans even more worried because that inevitably means adapting to new changes that are not new appealing.

The high cost of living has caused a decline in fuel sales, but also Kenyans will have to deal with the increase in transport costs, electricity generation, cost of food, and manufacturing.

Based on the announcement made, a liter of gasoline increased by 4% to 134.72 KES per liter in Nairobi. Diesel prices also rose by 4.5% to 11.60 KES per liter. Kerosene used in cooking will remain unchanged these changes were to be enforced from 15^th March 2022.  All we can do now as Kenyans is to adapt to the changes.