Revealed: Prices of items that increased the most in 2015

A trader sorts tomatoes at a Nyeri market. Rising food prices made cooking an expensive affair. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

By NEVILLE OTUKI, notuki@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• With food accounting for the largest share of home budgets or 36 per cent of the inflation basket, it pushed the cost of living measure to its highest level in 16 months.

Rising beer, cigarettes and food prices hit workers’ pockets hard, erasing the benefits of lower fuel prices to consumers.

Heavy rains blamed on the El Nino weather phenomenon has seen most food prices especially vegetables go through the roof.

The heavy rains have washed away or made impassable dirt roads, cutting off some farmers from markets, hurting supplies. Some crops have also been damaged.

New taxes introduced to raise an additional Sh25 billion also spoilt the party for drinkers and smokers ahead of the Christmas holidays.

However, cheap petrol, kerosene and cooking gas did ease inflationary pressure on consumers’ wallets in 2015.

Petrol retailing at an average of Sh90 per litre, down from Sh102 a year ago while cooking gas cut Sh650 to sell at Sh2, 369 for the 13kg cylinder over the period.

But rising food prices made cooking an expensive affair. A kilo of tomatoes averaged Sh125 in December, up from Sh83.80 in the same month last year while a similar quantity of sukuma wiki rose by Sh6 to Sh37. A kilo of meat neared Sh400 from Sh386 last year.

With food accounting for the largest share of home budgets or 36 per cent of the inflation basket, it pushed the cost of living measure to its highest level in 16 months.

READ: Food, beer and cigarette taxes push inflation to 16-month high

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows that inflation rose from 7.32 per cent in November to 8.01 per cent in December — marking the highest level since August last year when it stood at 8.36 per cent.

“This aggregate increase in the food index generally resulted from increases in prices of several food items which outweighed the decreases,” the KNBS said in a statement.

“There were notable falls in the cost of kerosene and cooking gas.

Geothermal power

Electricity price increase has dashed the government’s promise of cheaper power following the injection of additional 280 megawatts of cheaper geothermal electricity to the national grid last year that was expected to reduce use of expensive thermal power.

Homes that consumed 50 units (kilowatt hours) of electricity paid Sh542 up from Sh521. The government promised lowering electricity expenses further this year.