Cleric, lobbyists want State to act on high cost of living
By Harrison.Kivisu, March 2, 2023Pentecostal Worship Ministries in Jomvu yesterday weighed in on the high cost of living and asked the government to stop making false promises and instead deal with the issue that has left Kenyans suffering.
Addressing the press in Mombasa yesterday, Bishop Dr Paul Mwaura noted that the cost of living is increasingly becoming unbearable for families with meager financial resources.
“We are asking the government to honour the bottom up plan by ensuring that Kenyans have money into their pockets, the suffering due to the high cost of living is so dire, even our members do not have money to pay tithes and offering,” said Mwaura.
He added: “The level at which Kenyans are suffering due to high prices of commodities cannot be wished away, the government needs to walk the talk and remedy the situation, we can’t continue to live like this,” said Mwaura.
During his coastal tour over the weekend, President William Ruto maintained that his administration will not reintroduce subsidies on petroleum products and maize flour because they were economically untenable and had been abused by his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta to benefit a few well-connected individuals.
Human rights organisations led by Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) are now planning to mobilize citizens in a protest to compel the government to reduce the prices of goods.
“We will mobilize the people and go to the streets to demonstrate against the prices of Unga and other commodities, the government is not giving compelling reasons why it should not lower the cost of living,” said Muhuri’s Rapid Response officer Francis Ouma.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the cost of a two-kilogramme packet of maize flour has increased by 32.2 per cent, over the past 12 months and is now retailing at more than Sh200.
Kenya’s maize production has fluctuated in the past eight years, with its highest production being in 2018, when it produced 44.6 million bags and the lowest being in 2017 when the country produced 35.4 million bags.
The organization said the government is failing Kenyans by its continued creation of political offices at the expense of taxpayers.
The lobby said if the government fails to pronounce itself on the plan to lower the cost of food, then a street protest by Kenyans will be inevitable.
“We will have no option, what pains us most is seeing the office of president demanding an extra Sh5 billion after exhausting their Sh8 billion budget in eight months. In the interest of accountability we want to know how this money was spend,” said Ouma.