Ksh 1000 Would Buy You More Goods In January 2021 Than Today

In January 2021, a thousand Kenyan shillings would buy you 1kg Loose Maize Flour (49 shillings), 2Kg Sifted Maize flour (117 shillings), 2 kg Wheat Flour White (126 shillings), 1kg mangoes (102 shillings), 1kg spinach (56 shillings), 1kg Sukuma Wiki (51 shillings).

It would also buy you 1Kg cabbage (39 shillings), 1Kg tomatoes (99 shillings), 1Kg carrot (73 shillings), 1kg onion (106 shillings), and 1kg Irish potato at 68 shillings  This means you needed a total budget of 883 shillings.

In 2022, you need a budget of 999 shillings to get the same commodities.

Many people have shared their shopping lists, complaining of how the sharp spike in prices of basic food items like milk, bread, sugar, and maize flour in recent months, has made it difficult for them to afford three meals a day.

The situation has disproportionately impacted low- and middle-income households majorly. A thousand shillings can only get a few items. This means that if one thousand is your shopping limit, you either have to drop some products completely, take smaller quantities or even shift to other brands.

The increase in the cost of living in the country can be attributed to several issues including a combination of external and domestic factors.

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Due to the pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to raise more revenue, the government has increased taxes on everyday household goods such as cooking gas, fuel, and food.

For instance, value-added tax (VAT) was not applied to cooking gas for many years but a levy of 16 percent was imposed in July 2021.

In January 2022, the overall inflation rate in the country fell slightly for the second straight month – to 5 percent – but the prices of basic food commodities like maize flour and wheat flour, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits continued rising.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) says for poorer households where food accounts for about 36 percent of total spending, the burden is even higher.

The cost can also partly be due to the effects of Covid-19, which hit tourism and exports. The Kenyan shilling has been losing value by about 6 percent since May 2021, pushing up the prices of all imported goods.

The pandemic has also disrupted global supply chains, making it more expensive and tedious to access and move goods and services across borders

The issue of price rises has for some time dominated the political sphere in the country and is bound to play a big role in August’s general elections, especially now that every politician is using it as a building block campaign strategy to show how much they care about the citizens.

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