Rising food prices heap pain on poor households

Mwagushe Mwapitu cuts some of his sukuma wiki into peaces for sale at Majengo Market in Mombasa County. (Photo: Kelvin Karani/Standard)

Food prices in April continued to rise pushing up the cost of living beyond the reach of most Kenyans. Prices of sukumawiki (kales) and cabbages, which are consumed in most most households, more than doubled as inflation hit a five-year high of 11.48 per cent in the month, according to the latest figures by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

Last month, inflation, or the general rise in prices of goods and services, stood at 10.28 per cent. Compared to April, 2016, the cost of sukumawiki and cabbages increased by 63 and 55 per cent respectively as the country grappled with the effects of a debilitating drought that has plunged close to four million Kenyans into near-starvation.