Go beyond simply reducing the price of maize flour

The zero rating of maize imports for four months by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich during this year's budget reading in Parliament brought with it huge relief. Over the last few months, inflation has hit the double digit mark at 10.2 per cent for the first time in many years generally making life expensive.

Poor rainfall patterns last year resulted in poor harvests and the drought ravaging at least 23 counties has not helped matters. Initially, maize imports from Uganda and Tanzania helped in ensuring a steady supply of flour, but the prices have remained high.

The upward spiral in prices of basic household commodities like milk, sugar, flour and rice on which many households depend means many have had to adjust their monthly budgets especially food to match the eroded purchasing power. Consequently, ugali, the staple food of many, has become a luxury, so much so that wheat flour, which a few years back was reserved for special occasions, is cheaper by comparison.

Rotich has promised that the price of maize flour will come down soon. As a first step to realising this, the government has released one million bags of maize from the cereals storage into the market and lowered the cost of a 90kg bag of maize to Sh3,000, down from Sh4,400.

But while this is a move in the right direction, the irony of releasing one million bags amid a declared shortage that drove prices up and even before the importation of maize from Mexico and Ethiopia becomes a reality, cannot be missed.

The government should go further and consider taking measures that will ensure a reduction in the prices of milk, sugar and kerosene; those that low income families get by with. But even as this is being done, encouraging farmers through subsidies and good prices for their produce, embracing farming methods that don't entirely rely on rainfall can improve our food security.