President Ruto Says Food Prices to Reduce from This Week

President Ruto has assured Kenyans of his administration’s commitment to addressing the high cost of living.

Speaking during a service at African Inland Church (AIC), in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County on Sunday, the president acknowledged that Kenyans are struggling to put food on the table, adding that the government has put in place measures 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,” he said.

Ruto noted that the importation of food was only a temporary measure, saying the long-term solution to the country’s food insecurity is farming.

“Lowering food prices boils down to what we do as farmers and the solution is to produce food locally,” he added.

He expressed confidence that the country has all the resources and manpower required to produce enough food for local consumption and exportation.

“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.

Last month, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi announced that the government would allow the importation of two million metric tons of various duty-free foods to address the ongoing food shortage in the country.

“We expect accredited traders will bring in duty-free 1.4 million metric tons of imported white maize, 1.1 million metric tons of rice and 500,000 metric tons of yellow maize,” he said.