The prices of essential items, including soap, cooking gas and cooking oil, have risen by up to a third in the past 12 months, straining household budgets at a time when average private-sector pay is growing at the slowest pace in a decade.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data show that inflation rose from 5.08 percent in February to 5.6 percent in March on the back of a sharp increase in the prices of key household items like cooking gas, food and petrol.
