Working poor and what budget means for them

For Nahashon Muchiri Macharia’s household, measures announced on Wednesday by Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta aimed at cutting the cost of food and fuel are a welcome break.

One of the many Kenyan families for whom the impact of soaring food and fuel prices has put a further squeeze on their budgets, the silver lining seems remote to the Macharias.

Four years ago, Mr Macharia’s garage in Nairobi’s Hamza Estate had more clients than he could handle.

Now, he has to go out, including travelling to far-flung parts of the city, in search of customers as his family tries to stick to their budget in a bid to weather the storm of the general rise in the cost of goods and services or inflation.

Flanked by his wife Jane Njeri and four-year-old daughter Susan Wangui, Mr Macharia cuts the figure of the ordinary Kenyan struggling to make ends meet in an environment of galloping cost of living.

His garage brings in a net monthly income of about Sh30,000 down from Sh45,000 a year ago. He now has four assistants at the garage who are paid at the end of each day.

“Until last year, regular customers and even new ones were coming to this garage but they have suddenly disappeared,” Mr Macharia, 41, told the Nation at his Hamza house.

Many of his clients, he says, have stopped using their personal vehicles because of the rising cost of fuel. As a result, his net income has taken a major knock.

Worse still, the country’s inflation rate nearly tripled from 4.51 per cent in December 2010 to 12.95 per cent last month in the face of rising food and fuel prices and a weak shilling.

This means the little money the Macharias and other Kenyans are making has lost value such that they are now spending more on fewer goods and services of the same quality than they did late last year.

Mr Macharia is the only breadwinner in the family. He lives in a single bedroom house in Hamza, paying Sh3,500 a month. In addition, he pays Sh500 for electricity and Sh800 for water a month.

Most of his food comes from his rural home, but his wife, Jane, adds that they need at least Sh200 a day for expenses on other household items, translating to about Sh6,000 a month.

Mr Macharia also sends about Sh6,000 to his parents in Kangema every month.

Food for a month

He works through most weekends so he hardly gets time to take his family out for entertainment except on special occasions such as public holidays. Another Sh7,000 goes into fuelling and maintaining his pick-up.

“Every time we travel to the village, we carry enough maize and vegetables to last a whole month,” he said. He also carries packed tea to sell to neighbours for extra income.

“Remember the cost of fuel has gone up so we cannot travel home every weekend as we used to,” he told the Nation.

So when Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was invited to give a Ministerial Statement on the Budget on Wednesday, Mr Macharia and his family were hoping to hear a reduction in food and fuel prices.

At this point, Jane who had been quietly listening joins in the discussion: “The government has to reduce price of food because as it is, we cannot afford to have a big family... There are no drugs at the hospital yet we pay heavily for services that should be given free of charge,” she added.