Before you vote: the truth about the price of unga

Maize flour on display at a Tuskys supermarket on Ronald Ngala Street in Nairobi on May 17 2017. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

“Let’s get our facts right. In 2012, the price of unga was almost Sh140 or thereabouts, 135-140. It was when we came in that actually the price first came down to around Sh100 or just slightly below,” - President Uhuru Kenyatta

What was the price of unga in 2012?

In 2012, according to available price data, the average price of a two-kilogram packet of maize flour was about Sh115, according to consumer price indices from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

The average price reduced to about Sh109 in 2013 and in April of that year when Mr Kenyatta was sworn in as Kenya’s fourth president the same packet of maize cost Sh110.

The following year, the price rose marginally to Sh115 and in 2015, the average price slid down to Sh107 before inching up to Sh108 in 2016.

In January this year, a two-kilogram packet sold for about Sh120, but by March the cost jumped 10 per cent to about Sh132.

It is the President who has his facts wrong.