Politics behind absence of subsidised maize flour on shelves

A man at Nakumatt Supermarkets' branch along Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi on May 18, 2017. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • As it were, the only people selling maize flour are wholesalers, and they are asking people to buy a few luxury items that are usually slow-moving stock.

  • For every bale of flour, they are politely asking customers to buy a dozen cans of insecticide, tomato paste for the entire estate, or cooking oil that could last a year.

Greed for profit alone cannot explain why shopkeepers are refusing to stock the Sh90 two-kilogramme packet of government subsidised maize flour.

Supermarkets dole it out like medicine, limiting purchasers to two packets and running out of stocks within an hour of delivery.

Wholesalers are selling a bale of maize flour at Sh1,040, which means that when each of the 12 two-kilogramme packs retails at the Government of Kenya price of Sh90, the shopkeeper down the road makes a princely sum of Sh3.33 on each – enough to turn them into instant millionaires.

Given that this food is government subsidy, all those motorcycle riders in Jubilee reflector flap jackets should be able to transport flour from the wholesaler to the local kiosk at no charge as part of their contribution to the government’s delivery strategy.

The shopkeepers, who ought to be supporting the government by donating shelf space in their kiosks and time serving the hungry masses, should be happy to support efforts to keep food prices down.

Unfortunately, the retail business has been flooded with opposition sympathisers who are hiding maize flour, waiting for the red ink with “GoK 90/=” to fade in order to dispose of it just before the expiry date in four months’ time.

ONLY WHOLESALERS

As it were, the only people selling maize flour are wholesalers, and they are asking people to buy a few luxury items that are usually slow-moving stock. For every bale of flour, they are politely asking customers to buy a dozen cans of insecticide, tomato paste for the entire estate, or cooking oil that could last a year.

Truth be told, opposition sympathisers have been choking on bile since the 30,000 tonnes of maize, bought with Sh6 billion government subsidy, arrived from Mexico in a record five days.

Naysayers in the opposition were stunned into silence. And they have not rested in their efforts to take the shine off the maize importation, one of the greatest achievements of the administration to date.

Their comeback has been to occasion the artificial shortage of maize flour in the hope that the product can be handed out as a freebie close to the August 8, 2017 elections as part of fulfilling the irresponsible pledge to reduce the cost of living. The entire time, they have been secretly communicating with their shopkeeper sympathisers and supermarket people to turn the celebration at the arrival of the Mexican maize into tears. As a result, retailers have decided to foment public odium against the government.

WEALTHY MARKET

It is instructive that maize millers have refused to super-refine high-end flour for the wealthy market, and their own role in the disappearance of maize imports is a subject worthy of investigation.

When the opposition leaders see Kenyans suffering in their unsuccessful search for flour, they start doing political cartwheels because they can see an opportunity to capitalise on it for political gain.

They hate the look of satiated Kenyans and instead seek to starve large swathes of the population into hating the government. They see a little misery and anxiety, and they want to turn it into an epidemic.

The maize hoarding tactics are reminiscent of the days when wheat flour would become scarce around Christmas when every family looked forward to a meal of chapati. People who had been living on the cheap, eating swill each day, suddenly developed a taste for chapati, creating an artificial demand for home-baking wheat flour. Retailers would then require that shoppers to pick up cooking fat, salt, sugar, and a cooking stick. These are the tactics of people whose politics is stuck in price controls, rent control and subsidies.