The exponential increase in inflation since the beginning of the year in Kenya has led to an unprecedented anarchy in product prices.
It went from 0.8% in January to 8.9% in February, with a number of concomitant causes such as the continuing drought in many agricultural areas of the country, and it's time to take action or limit the damage that wild trade is starting to do, with serious repercussions on the Kenyan lower middle classes.
The government yesterday announced a crackdown on traders who have been raising prices of basic commodities, in a bid to protect consumers from what the Competition Authority has described as "extortion".
An operation of controls across the country is expected to bring back to mild advice traders who, faced with inevitable increases such as those of milk (due to climate problems) and seed oil (due to blocked imports from Russia and Ukraine), have begun to increase any product in a deliberate and often reckless manner.
It is to be verified how and how much this process starts from those who sell the raw materials and how much the price increase concerns only the final distribution, stores and supermarkets.
The Government's final idea is to carry out a survey of producers' production costs and make recommendations on appropriate raw material prices.
The results will help the regulator to impose a price ceiling on all raw materials and services in the country.
It will be necessary to understand how much the collateral increases in palm oil, for example (33%), which is a domestic product and not affected by foreign imports, are dictated by real emergency conditions, as well as that of sugar (20%). Can the drought be enough to justify such "crazy prices" that significantly affect the daily spending of Kenyans?
The consumer association has published a list of products whose prices will have to be watched. In a difficult situation where climate change is compounded by a war, elections in August, and rising oil prices regulating transportation, we are just missing the vultures of large-scale distribution and retail.