Why increasing prices of charcoal could land one in jail

Some of the seized charcoal being offloaded at Mwingi Police Station on March 20, 2018. Mwingi court fined six charcoal traders Sh300,000 for transporting charcoal from Kitui county while there is an active ban. [Philip Muasya, Standard]

There was a time in Kenya when increasing the price of any commodity without State permission was the gravest crime a trader could ever commit.

One could be jailed for the ‘crime’. Hawk-eyed Price Control Inspectors monitored the amount charged on basic commodities to protect Kenyans from unscrupulous traders.