There was a low turnout at the Uhuru Gardens ahead of the Mashujaa day celebrations today, October 20, 2022.

The celebrations mark the first heroes’ day under President William Ruto’s administration.

A spot check by K24 Digital established that seats prepared for those who wished to attend the event remained empty hours after the event started.

It remains unclear why Kenyans failed to attend the celebrations as they did in the past years.

High cost of living

Earlier a section of Kenyans took to social media and the mainstream media to air out their frustrations over the rise in the cost of living.

For instance, Nyeri residents expressed displeasure following the increase in fuel prices, noting that they had high expectations of the cost of fuel going down as they had been promised by the Kenya Kwanza government during the campaigns.

Muriuki Mwangi, a motorist says that the increase in fuel prices means everything will have to shoot up and life will be difficult for ordinary Kenyans.

“It’s very unfortunate that the bottom-up promise is turning to be the going up of prices. I’m very stressed because I don’t know how to get to work and if I get to work I don’t know how to go back home.

“I have errands in between work but now I’ll have to stop my nocturnal activities because I can’t move around and I’m very certain I’m speaking on behalf of very many people,” he told K24 Digital.

He says the rise in fuel prices will affect the prices of many other commodities including food prices.

“It’s like we must find ways to cope with this; like reducing the number of meals per day and at the same time, we have to look for ways to be innovative.

“I think we should have seen it from the beginning. We were told it’s the wheelbarrow era and that’s where we are headed because we will have to find ways of moving from one point to another, carrying goods from one point to another but we hope things will get better in the coming months or years,” Muriuki added.

Another motorist believes that the government had started on the wrong foot.

“The new government had given us a lot of hope, especially on the cost of living. They knew that they were inheriting a government that had constraints and promised to improve it immediately after they took over. They would have cautioned us that it would not be easy,” the motorist lamented.

Alice Wanjiku, a resident said that Kenyans should brace for tough times ahead.

“Fuel price hike will reduce economic growth and increase inflation whereby it’s going to affect us negatively because things like food prices and electricity will shoot to higher prices and we will be in a state where people will not be able to afford food,” she said.

Some of the residents however urged Kenyans to give the new government more time to address the challenges as it has inherited a dilapidated economy.

“It will not be easy to address the challenges in one day. Let us give the government at least the 100 days they assured us and if nothing will have changed, people will have the right to raise an alarm,” Joseph Muriithi a businessman said.