A sharp increase in prices of basic commodities and food for the last few months has pushed up the cost of living.
According to former Nairobi county governor Mike Sonko, high cost production leads to increased prices of basic food commodities thus making Kenyans to dig deeper into their pockets in acquiring these items for daily livelihoods.
“I don’t think prices of food can be lowered down as you are protesting via #lowerfoodprices until prices of farm products are lowered i.e fertilizers, chemicals to spray, and animal Feeds.Language should start here. When production cost is high expect prices to be higher. In the meantime let’s embrace farming even if it’s kitchen garden” noted Sonko
Kenyans had expected prices of food items including milk and sugar to remain constant after President Uhuru Kenyatta lifted the countrywide curfew and several other Covid-19 containment measures.
But the soaring cost of commodities has forced people to brace for hard times ahead of Christmas festivities.
According to study, food prices have been increasing in Kenya since 2006 to date with costs of staple foods such as maize, wheat,milk among others having been rising progressively diminishing access to food for the poorer sections of the population leading to food insecurity in many households.
Underlying causes of food price crisis and food insecurity include both demand side and supply side factors. Demand side factors include: rapid population growth, rapid urbanization, low income, poverty and increasing demand for food products for biofuel production in developed nations.
Supply side factors include: declining agricultural productivity, high input prices, decline in world food stocks, underinvestment in rural infrastructure, climate change and climate variability, underinvestment in agriculture, poor markets and market access by small holder farmers.
In 2019,Agricultural Society of Kenya(ASK ) lauded Sonko’s administration for the support and cooperation that had ensured success and popularity growth of Nairobi International Trade Fair(NITF).