Kenya’s poor are continuing to pay the price of the violence which followed last year’s disputed elections. The economic consequences of that violence, when combined with crises in world food and fuel prices, have resulted in extreme inflation. In Nairobi, bus fares in some areas have quadrupled in the last 6 months. There have been enormous price increases for many of the staple items required by the poor including paraffin, charcoal, maize flour, bread, clothing and housing.
As happens in Australia, the Central Bank of Kenya responds to a rising underlying inflation rate by increasing interest rates, in the hope that this will reduce demand and help to control prices. However, as an article by Jaindi Kisero in yesterday’s Daily Nation points out, a tweaking of monetary policy will not by itself have the immediate effect of bringing down transport costs or the price of flour and bread.
In times of economic crisis, the poor are always the most vulnerable. In Australia, poor people suffer the most from rising transport and food costs. In Kenya, the suffering of the poor is magnified by the extremity of that poverty. When food prices go up, more people will die as a result of malnutrition, usually in conjunction with some other disease such as malaria or AIDS.