Investment, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria on Wednesday night September 13 was fact-checked live on TV after accusing Citizen TV anchor Sam Gituku of misleading viewers on the prices of cooking oil across the country.
During ‘The Big Conversation‘ segment, Gituku presented an approximate cost of cooking oil in the country being Ksh340 per litre, down from Ksh450 on September 13, 2022 when President William Ruto assumed power.
However, CS Kuria disputed the figures arguing that the Kenya Kwanza administration had managed to bring down the prices by implementing cost-lowering strategies.
“I wish your figures were factual. You pride yourselves that your TV is the most watched in the country, so don’t forget that somebody is watching you from a supermarket, so be careful,” Kuria stated.
“Cooking oil is much lower than what you project there, and Kenyans know that. You’ve said correctly that the price has come down, but it’s not even to the level you have said. It is by 50 per cent since we came to government,” he added.
He accused Gituku of sensational reporting claiming that the price of cooking oil in the country was about Ksh230.
“It is much lower than that, it’s in the region of Ksh.230 to Ksh.240…everyone can be entitled to their own opinions, but not everyone can be entitled to their own facts. Facts are universal,” he insisted.
To verify Kuria’s figures, Citizen TV sent a reporter, John Wanyama, to a Supermarket in Eldoret.
A spot check by the Eldoret-based reporter indicated that one brand was selling it’s one litre price of cooking oil at Ksh355, another at Ksh347, while the relatively cheaper ones were Ksh307 and Ksh325.
When confronted with these new figures, CS Kuria’s only defense was for the Citizen TV crew in Eldoret to “now go to Ruiru” and also check out the prices there because “we’re here for two hours, what’s the hurry for?”
Besides that, Moses Kuria was also cornered after he whispered a response to Land CS Zachariah Njeru which was captured live on camera.
The CS fumbled to give a breakdown of Ksh73 billion the government intended to collect and utilize in the affordable housing program.
