Inflation falls to 10-month low of 7.9 percent

“The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ index increased by 2.7 percent between March 2023 and April 2023. This was mainly due to increase in prices of electricity, which increased 18.7 percent for 50 kilowatts and 13.7 percent for 200 kilowatts,” KNBS said.

Food usually has the biggest impact on the overall movement in prices because it accounts for nearly a third of the shopping basket for Kenyan families.

The growth in average food prices was the slowest since March 2022 at 9.9 percent, the data shows.

“The prices of (Irish) potatoes, beans and mangoes increased by 7.2, 5.0 and 3.5 percent, respectively, between March and April 2023.

“During the same period, prices of spinach, sukuma wiki (kale) and tomatoes declined by 12.6, 11.8 and 4.7 percent, respectively.”

The rise in average cost of transportation in April also eased year-year to 9.8 percent in April from 12.6 percent the month before, while it edged 0.2 percent month-on-month.

President William Ruto, who took power in September partly on a campaign platform of easing the cost of living for the majority poor households, has ruled out short-term fixes, dropping subsidies on unga and super petrol.

The Ruto administration has, however, denied consumers of super petrol a price drop since October, cash which it has since used to subsidise the purchase of diesel while maintaining the cushion on kerosene.

The inflation, however, remained above the upper target of 7.5 percent.