Tag Archives: prices

How to survive inflation

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It is almost impossible to live without purchasing products and services especially in urban areas, for this reason, expenses are already high. Inflation makes it worse and therefore one needs a few tips on how to live comfortably as well as save money and mostly survive inflation.

First, the most important thing is to monitor the prices of goods in the market. When there is a slight drop is the best time to shop in bulk. Shopping in bulk also saves money and resources as compared to constant trips to the supermarket all month long. Bulk shopping is also cheaper as the packs are more economical. Also, consumers should try and purchase goods from the wholesalers if possible as the chain of distribution is shortened, since there are less middlemen and hence prices are cheaper. That way, one can save a few shillings. Scrutinize your shopping list comprehensively by asking yourself if you really need some of the things you are spending for and how often you use them. If the answer is negative, then do not purchase the items. By this, you will find yourself cutting off unnecessary expenses and saving some for the basic needs. Reduce your consumption on the products that are rising rapidly in price, especially if they are things you can do without. For instance, the price of fuel is rising rapidly. If travelling for a long distance, one can opt to use public means, which is cheaper than fueling your own vehicle that will save you a great deal of money.

Finally, inflation is beyond our control as consumers. There is nothing much we can do about it, but the good news is that we can control how much damage it brings along financially by basically cutting down on the products and services that we do not need temporarily, or reducing how much we utilize them. This will help you save a coin or two, that can be used to buy the necessities. Therefore one does not have to live cheap but just a bit smart. Let the luxuries be a once in a while treat. Consumers should also keep in mind that purchasing commodities in bulk is usually cheaper than the opposite. Good luck as you masquerade past the economic hurricane.

KENYA FOOD SECURITY | A critical view

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Co-Author :  Victor Daniels

On February 22, 2010, a senior policy analyst with the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA), was quoted saying, “we have a challenge in the management of our public affairs [and] the management of our food stocks. Sometimes we are exporting food yet we later need to import. There is failure to learn from best practices, to invest in knowledge and transform that knowledge into action.”

According to OneWorld UK, the UN “estimates that 3.5 million Kenyans will require food assistance, a figure that may rise before the end of 2011.” However, the assessments updated on July, 2011, “exclude the Somali refugees located in the Dadaab camps in eastern Kenya whose plight is managed as an international refugee crisis, as distinct from Kenya’s national food insecurity.” Scholars have blamed the looming food crisis in Kenya, not only on the failure of successive seasonal rains, but also on poor standards of governance, and mismanagement of the agriculture sector, coupled with lack of political goodwill. Providing credit facilities to farmers, setting up micro-irrigation schemes, and cash transfers to poor farmers, as well as effecting input subsidies are just but a few ways to begin the comprehensive process, to realize food security in Kenya.

Kenya Food Security

In light of the above, an economy should be based on a long-lasting, reliable system, not on slavery, and coercion. Our economy relies on greed, and a serious lack of thought about consequences. That is a very unstable sort of economy. A lucid socio-economic analysis of the mechanisms of exploitative processes in the Kenyan economy brings out Kenya’s predicament in the light of under-hand shady policy making, which is not exclusively Marxist, but still draws heavily on that school of thought. Even before the fall of the KANU regime, the prices of prime commodities such as tea, sugar, rice, and maize, have constantly been rising, which creates a conflict of interests considering we locally produce the same. Where does the buck stop? Can we still interpret this, as Kenya’s success story? Are the Kenyan food policies a success in terms of growth, or total output? The time has come to reappraise agricultural pricing policies in general, so that agriculture makes its optimum contribution to maximizing gross national production. For maize, the Kenyan staple grain, the producer’s selling price should be reviewed, and be set at the relevant export parity price. The consumer price should be down to a comfortable level, thus, the price should be set at the producer’s selling price, plus marketing costs- incurred in distributing the maize to consumers. It is true that costs are rising, but then, if a justified investment policy was directed for export, we would expect the abolition of domestic marketing, thus, providing comfortable floor and ceiling prices. Starvation in most Kenyan regions remains to haunt us due to the government’s sub-standard reckoning, without political goodwill for the Kenyan people. Well known Members of Parliament, politicians, senior civil servants, and business men affiliated to high echelons of power, have repeatedly been accused with controversial maize and sugar imports and exports, but still, calls to prosecute the alleged suspects, go unheeded. Impunity and indecisiveness, thrives at high levels of governance, and on the miseries of the citizenry, where justice refers to how deep your pockets are. Budgetary allocation for the Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Lands is irrelevant, if the people meant to be protected by the same, are dying of acute food shortage, and malnutrition. The chronic famine situation in Kenya, signals a malfunction in the governance of the Kenyan democracy. Kenya truly needs, a decentralized system, of running State affairs. Focus should be on the people and their strengths, instead of importing western innovations, and ideologies. Since we should be the change we want to see, we should put an end to popularistic politics, and deal with real issues affecting Kenyans on the ground, in a comprehensive manner.

References:

Food Security in Kenya-briefing OneWorld UK, July, 2011

Experts voice food security concerns IRIN Africa, February 22, 2010

Outrage over rising food and fuel prices IRIN Africa, April 20, 2011