“Poor households are hit hardest by this,” said Timothy Njagi, an agricultural economist at the Tegemeo research institute. “One of the drawbacks of globalization is that if something happens on one side of the world, it has an immediate effect on the other side of the world. I expect the price to continue to rise and be passed on to the consumer. “
This is already happening in the bakery of Lydia Wanjohi and Joseph Wachira, who run the bakery together. They have recently increased the price of a loaf of bread. “Customers are staying away now,” says Lydia. “For the average Kenyan, 10 cents extra is too much. They can’t afford it.” And that while bread is an important staple food for Kenyans.
In addition, it was already economically difficult times in Kenya: the corona pandemic led to a tax increase that is already hitting consumers hard in the wallet. Joseph shakes his head. “Last month we made twenty to fifty loaves of bread,” he says. “But since the war that has decreased by half.”
Agricultural economist Njagi has a hard head about it. “This is going to exacerbate the poverty problem,” he says. Njagi expects rising food prices to slow the economic recovery from the corona crisis. At the same time, this crisis offers opportunities to produce more in Kenya: “It is important that we start growing our own food.”
In the video of our Africa correspondent Saskia Houttuin it is noticeable how the war in Ukraine affects the lives of Kenyans:
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