High Cost of Living, Politics in 2017 Blamed for a Tough Year for Kenyans

Majority of Kenyans are of the opinion that 2017 was an extremely difficult year with the high cost of living and prolonged electioneering period being cited as the greatest challenge.

A survey conducted by Trends and Insights for Africa (Tifa) shows that 2017 was a challenging year for 75 percent of Kenyans with only 12 percent of the respondents preferring this year to last year.

According to the poll conducted between 12th and 16th December 2017 and released on Thursday, the main challenge faced in 2017 was the high cost of living at 64 percent followed by political tensions at 52 percent with unemployment ranked  3rd at 25 percent.

“Basically, 2017 was a bad year for Kenyans. The prolonged election period coupled with drought impacted negatively on the economy and this resulted to high inflation and reduced employment prospects” said Maggie Ireri, CEO of TIFA Research.

Ireri said the prolonged electioneering period coupled with drought impacted negatively on the economy and this resulted to high inflation and reduced employment prospects.

“The crisis in Kenya was not only evident in political tension but also in the wallets of many citizens who could not afford to purchase basic food commodities such as maize flour, milk and sugar, whose prices rose sharply and in some instances by over 200 percent. 2017 was the year when food prices became the yard stick for Kenya’s economic performance in the eyes of the ordinary mwananchi.”

Read: What to Expect in 2018 For The Kenyan Economy 

“In addition to Unga, other basic commodities whose prices shot up include milk, sugar, dry beans, and potatoes. It is therefore not surprising that the cost of living was a key concern amongst Kenyans as most households were forced to dig deeper into their pockets in order to meet their basic needs” said Ms Ireri.

Political tension was the highest incidence in North Eastern (71 percent) followed by Nyanza and Coast both at 59 percent mentions. In comparison to other regions, Nyanza had the highest mentions for unemployment, doctors’ strike and poverty and this could be an indication of their general dissatisfaction with the situation in the country.

The survey targeted Kenyans aged above 18 years and sampled 1,005 respondents living in urban and rural areas.

The sample size was 1,005 respondents living in urban and rural areas. The margin-of-error (for the total sample) attributed to sampling and other random effects of this poll’s sample size is +/- 3 with a 95% confidence level. T