October witnessed more struggle among Kenyans as the cost of basic commodities continued to soar following the removal of subsidies by President William Ruto.
According to an official report released on Monday by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the inflation rate increased by 0.4% from 9.2% to 9.6%.
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The changes represent the rise in the cost of living for eight straight months, a series that started in February 2022 when the rate stood at 5.1%.
Food commodities and non-alcoholic drinks contributed the most to inflation, with transport and domestic needs such as gas and electricity following closely.
“The rise in inflation was largely due to an increase in prices of commodities under food and non-alcoholic beverages (15.8%); transport (11.6%) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (7.1%) between October 2021 and October 2022,” said KNBS in a statement.
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“The Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ Index increased by 0.5 percent between September 2022 and October 2022 due to increases in prices of 50 Kilowatts and 200 Kilowatts electricity units, which increased by 2.4 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively,”
Kenyans also had to dig deep in transport as Matatus hiked fares after the fuel subsidy was scrapped.
“Transport Index increased slightly by 1.0 percent between 2022 October and September 2022 due to increases in matatu fares and taxi fares, among others,” said KNBS.
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