President William Ruto on Sunday, April 9, announced when Kenyans should start expecting lower food prices.
While speaking during a Sunday service at African Inland Church (AIC), in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, the President revealed that he was aware that many Kenyans were suffering.
Ruto revealed that the government was doing everything in its power to alleviate the suffering.
“I know we have a big debate across the country about the cost of living and how we need to reduce food prices.
“As a government, we have imported a lot of food and beginning this week, it will get to the market,” the President told Kenyans.
The Head of State though warned Kenyans that this would only be a temporary relief.
“Lowering food prices boils down to what we do as farmers and the solution is to produce food locally,” he explained the long-term solution to food insecurity in the country.
Ruto remarked that he had a conviction that Kenya had the resources and manpower to produce its own food and reduce overreliance on imports.
He further added that in his own individual capacity as a farmer, he was working towards achieving that.
“This Easter season I decided to spend time here at home and also to supervise the planting on my farm.
“As a farmer, I came down here to look at what I can do. To make a contribution to food production in our country so that we can reduce the cost of living,” he remarked.
On Sunday, March 12, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi announced that the government would import 2 million metric tonnes of various duty-free food.
“We expect accredited traders will bring in duty-free 1.4 million metric tonnes of imported white maize, 1.1 million metric tonnes of rice and 500,000 metric tonnes of yellow maize,” the CS announced back then.
At that time, Linturi announced that the food would arrive in Kenya starting April 5, 2023.
