The Senate has introduced the Price Control (Essential Goods) (Amendment) Bill, 2024 which aims to regulate the price of essential commodities and ensure that Kenyans afford the products, including those with a low income. The proposal wants the Treasury Cabinet Secretary to be accorded power to determine the minimum and maximum retail prices of the products.
The bill, presented by Senator Tabitha Mutinda, seeks to amend the existing Price Control (Essential Goods) Act of 2011.
A key objective of the Bill is to prevent essential goods from becoming unaffordable, stabilise prices, and protect consumers from exploitation by monopolies and oligopolies.
Senator Tabitha Mutinda during the Standing Committee on, County Public Investments and Special Funds-CPIC meeting on June 24, 2024. /TABITHA MUTINDA
The goods set to be targeted in the proposed Bill include:
- Maize
- Maize flour
- Wheat
- Wheat flour
- Rice
- Cooking fat (or oil)
- Sugar
- Prescribed pharmaceutical drugs
The Bill requires the CS to announce a Gazette Notice upon consultations with industry stakeholders. If approved, the CS will also have powers to declare any goods to be essential commodities and determine their minimum and maximum prices as well as the categories they belong to.
The Bill additionally provides that the minimum and maximum prices can be set based on costs, market conditions, and the importance of goods for economic development.
Treasury Ministry must, therefore, consider severe disturbances on the market, the significance of the particular essential goods, the strengthening of the competitive capabilities of the domestic market, and the consumer purchasing power before determining the prices.
The CS will then be expected to assign a department to monitor and enforce price controls upon gazettement, which will be headed by the director of price control and will be tasked with monitoring compliance, monitoring prices for abnormal increases, collecting and analysing market data, and enforcing price control directives.
Other functions will include making recommendations to the government based on analysis, educating the public regarding the prices, and maintaining comprehensive data on price fluctuations.
“The Cabinet Secretary shall designate such public officers as are necessary to serve as price control officers in the unit for the proper and efficient discharge of the functions of the unit under this Act,” read the bill in part.
The Price Control Unit will engage with producers, retailers, consumer groups, and other government agencies to gather feedback and foster cooperation in implementing price control measures. Public education on the importance and implications of these policies will also be a priority for the unit.
The introduction of this bill comes at a time when global economic instability has heightened concerns about food security and affordability, protests notwithstanding over the state’s attempt to introduce and increase taxes lamenting a high cost of living.
The government has been actively seeking measures to protect its citizens from inflation and exploitative market practices, making this bill a significant step in that direction.
This bill should therefore ensure that Kenyans afford basic commodities, no matter the product selling them, on the government’s road to reducing their costs.
Maize flour for instance has not seen prices as low as Ksh100 per two-kilogram packet since 2022 when a subsidy programme under former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration saw Kenyans enjoy the precious commodity before the 2022 general elections.
Maize flour being sold at a supermarket. /MARVIN CHEGE.VIRALTEAKE