0
0
by Wanja Waweru
Kenyans received a new promise from President William Ruto regarding the cost of cornmeal (unga).
On April 14, 2023, the head of state announced during a people-meeting tour in Machakos County that the price of the precious commodity would drop “in the coming days.”
Even as he stressed his government’s commitment to lowering the cost of living, President Ruto has delayed announcing new prices or exact dates.
“You will soon start to see a new price for Unga. This is because we have to balance corn flour prices to protect our farmers.
“You know the corn we import is the work of other farmers but we mostly depend on our own local farmers.”
The pledge comes as the opposition puts pressure on the government to deal with what Azimio leader Raila Odinga claims is the rising cost of living. A series of anti-government rallies, sparked by pressure, left four dead, scores injured, including police officers, and property worth millions of shillings destroyed.
However, the chief had previously made promises about the cost of the unga.
President Ruto, who was the vice president at the time, made a number of campaign promises to lower the price of unga to Ksh70 per 2kg parcel if elected.
In addition, he informed Kenyans that his “first” task after taking the oath of office would be to carry out his election as President on September 11, 2022. He should not have been.
Instead, the president explained that he had meetings with officials from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the national treasury, and the Ministry of Agriculture on how to address the cost of living, settling instead on agricultural input price subsidies.
Later, on October 25, 2022, Ruto asked Kenyans to be patient with him and gave him a one-year grace period to lower his cost of living.
