Kenyans Paid More For Food Including Spinach, Sukuma Wiki And Flour In February As Inflation Bites

The overall year-on-year inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.3 percent, in February 2024.

The inflation was mainly driven by increases in prices of commodities under Transport (10.8%); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and other fuels (8.4%); and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (6.9%) between February 2023 and February 2024. These three divisions account for over 57 percent of the weights of the 13 broad categories.

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As presented in Table 1 and Table 2, the index increased from 138.15 in January 2024 to 138.34 in February 2024, a change of 0.1 percent.

The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index rose by 0.3 percent between January 2024 and February 2024. The prices of tomatoes, sugar, maize grain-loose, and maize flour-loose dropped by 5.7, 4.6, 3.4, and 1.6 percent, respectively, between January 2024 and February 2024.

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During the same period, however, prices of spinach, Sukuma Wiki and wheat flour-white increased by 3.9, 3.4, and 2.6 percent, respectively.

The Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other Fuels Index decreased by 0.8 percent between January 2024 and February 2024, mainly due to a drop in prices of 200 kWh and 50 kWh of electricity by 9.3 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively.

“Households spending Sh46,355 or less per month constituting 70.899 percent of all households in Nairobi fall in the lower income group while households spending Sh46,356 up to and including Sh184,394 per month make up the middle-income group, constituting 25.58 percent of all Nairobi households,” the KNBS notes.

In addition, the price of a liter of kerosene dropped by 0.5 percent during the same period. However, during the same review period, the prices of gas/LPG rose by 4.3 percent. Whereas the prices of petrol and diesel decreased by 0.5 percent between January 2024 and February 2024, the Transport Index went up by 0.2 percent during
the same period.

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