Why high food prices will continue in Kenya
As Kenyans take to the streets in protest against the high cost of living, Okoth Osewe lays the blame for the food crisis on the government’s ‘liberalised’ economic policy.
Eventually, the high cost of living in Kenya has began to force the victims into the streets to demand that the government take action to address the crisis. Today, 10 million Kenyans are facing starvation while over 20 million others are increasingly finding it difficult to put food on the table.
Millions of youths have no jobs while millions of workers are living on starvation wages that cannot now enable them to live from hand to mouth. The country is slowly becoming one big prison where millions are threatened with death because there is no food to eat. In the meantime, a few thieves in control of the wealth of the country are enjoying life as if Kenya is a small heaven on earth. They collaborate with their Western allies to ensure that the Kenyan masses are kept ignorant, deprived, begging and perpetually in a state of want.
Between January and April this year, the cost of 400gms of bread rose from Ksh 35 to Ksh 40 (14% increase) while a 2kg packet of maize floor, the staple food, rose from Ksh 75 to Ksh 93 (24% increase). During the same period, the price of a 2kg packet of cooking oil shot up from Ksh 385 to Ksh 425 (10% increase) while a 500ml milk pack rose to Ksh 30, up from Ksh 25 (20% increase). Likewise, 10 gms of tea leaves is now more expensive after prices rose from Ksh 30 to Ksh 40 (33% increase) while the price of a 2kg pack of rice also rose from Ksh 310 to Ksh 340 (10% increase). A 2 kg pack of wheat-floor rose from Ksh 90 to Ksh 135 (38% increase). These price increases are unprecedented and causing argony to millions of Kenyans across the country.
The uncontrollable spiral of food prices in Kenya is not new. What is new is that poor Kenyan workers and millions of unemployed youths who can no longer put food on the table are beginning to wake up to the fact that something is seriously wrong with the institution called government. Demonstrations organized by consumer organizations and Civil Society groups have been witnessed across the country. The Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) has warned that the government must increase the minimum wage or face unspecified consequences. Social movements like Bunge la Mwananchi have teamed up with youth groups to demand government intervention to save Kenyans from starving to death.
To show that it is addressing the crisis, the government moved to implement cosmetic measures to try and appease the starving millions in Kenya. Through Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, the government announced that it would reduce kerosene and diesel taxes by 20 and 30 percent respectively but this move failed to reduce public rage. As an extra measure, Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister, announced that the government would abolish taxes for fuel and kerosene to force prices down so that food can become affordable. However, there is one important equation in the food crisis that millions of Kenyans are not being told.
The high cost of fuel, which is being blamed for rising prices of food, transport and other commodities is just the tip of the iceberg. Fuel prices are being increased by agents of greedy capitalists seeking to enrich themselves by ruthlessly exploiting poor Kenyans. What Kenyans are not being told is that the government is part of the conspiracy to ensure that the wealth grabbers will continue stealing from the poor even in the face of cosmetic changes which have so far had no impact in food pricing.
NO SOLUTION ON A CAPITALIST BASIS
Raila Odinga stated clearly that “This is a liberalised economy and we would want the market to be the main determinant of prices”. In simpler terms, Raila was saying that Kenya has a capitalist economic system of government and that the situation is unlikely to change in the near future because the government belongs to a group of wealth grabbers. It is the greed of the capitalist class that drives their members to engage in corruption. The haphazard price increases that benefit the rich are part of this corruption and the victims are the millions of poor Kenyans.
During demonstrations to protest against high food prices, there was not a single political party (represented in Parliament) that joined the demonstrators to show solidarity. Both ODM and PNU did not try to take advantage of the demos to increase their political profiles by being seen to be on the side of the poor. Why?
Because these parties are the main agents of capitalism at the ruling class level and joining the protesters could have been the same as drinking poison to commit political suicide. When the six Ocampo criminals returned from The Hague earlier this month, they were met by a “mammoth crowd” at the airport before they proceeded to Uhuru park to engage in verbal political diarrhea. Where was Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto when their supporters were protesting against high food prices? The answer is that they made tactical retreats because the demonstrations pitted the rich against the poor. Just like members of the ruling class, both Ruto and Uhuru have nothing in common with the poor who are unable to afford unga.
Under the system of capitalism, the government has no say in prices of essential consumer commodities because under the system, the market dictates. Unfortunately, there is no solution to the high food prices under the system. What Kenyans will continue to witness are cosmetic changes aimed at soothing public anger while the status quo remains.
Once Kenyans understand this arrangement, they will begin to look elsewhere. The only known option to sort out the crisis is revolution, not just to remove the thieving capitalist class from power but to change the system of government so that the State can take control of prices of key consumer commodities without being held hostage by the wealth grabbers. There is no short cut.
The reason why a few rich thieves have managed to take control of the wealth of millions of Kenyans is because they have control of the State machine which is at their disposal. Although many Kenyans believe that the country has a government in place, there is no government. If you have no food to eat, no clothing, no access to medical care or you have no shelter, then you are deceiving yourself when you think that you have a government. What the country has is a Committee of wealth grabbers calling itself government and whose members are accountable to nobody but themselves.
These are realities that Kenyans will have to accept before they can begin to understand or examine the politics of revolutionary change. Any Kenyan still looking at the so called leaders expecting that when one of them comes to power, he/she will change the situation is politically unconscious. The revolution will have to be organized from below and the current ruling class will have no role to play in this revolution because this ruling class owns the system that needs to be overturned so that a new beginning can be set in motion.
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* This article first appeared on Kenya Stockholm Blog.
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