Earlier this week, President William Ruto asked Kenyans to give him a year to completely deal with the menace of hiked unga prices.
That was contrary to their expectation as he had promised to deal with the issue as soon as he was sworn into office as president.
Nandi senator Samson Cherargei has however explained why it will take that long to lower flour prices.
According to him, the head of state is focusing on the long term solution instead of relying on subsidies.
“On the issue of the cost of living, the president has said this, it is important to subsidize production over consumption. It is important to treat the disease, not by providing painkillers, the long term. These subsidies have been very expensive from fuel subsidy to unga subsidy and there was no beneficiary even in the oil sector. When you were paying Kshs5 billions it was only five companies that were given subsidies,” the senator said during the breakfast show on Citizen TV.
Cherargei added that all is well and Kenyans should expect lower food prices especially flour in the next few months since farmers are now harvesting maize. According to him, once the prices of foodstuffs are lowered, the cost of living and inflation will also go down.
“But the bottom line the president was making is that he wants a long term solution because if we provide unga subsidy, how long are we going to do that. If we can subsidize and provide fertilizer to counties through distribution by county governments it will be easier because the cost of production will be cheaper, you produce more and quality,” he no
He also called out on Azimio for complaining about the long period Kenyans have to wait to get cheap ugali, yet they were “responsible” for the high prices asking them to keep quiet while the government fixes the mess.
“They took five years to take the price of unga to Kshs230 the president has promised that he will lower within one year. We should thank the president for the roadmap to fix the mess,” Cheragei said.
He also said that other factors contributing to the long wait include drought and famine that have affected parts of the country and the tough economic times that have hit the world.
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