Higher prices of food and transport pushed up inflation to 4.5 percent in August, hitting a 14-month high, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has said.
The inflation rate rose from 4.1 percent in July and was the highest since hitting 6.2 percent in June 2024, mostly accounted for by prices of short-term food crops.
Among food items that drove up the inflation figure were tomatoes with prices rising by 38.3 percent compared to August 2024, carrots (24.3 percent), fortified maize flour (18.7 percent), and mangoes (18.1 percent), KNBS’ August Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows.
The CPI data also shows that Sukuma Wiki (17 percent), matatu fares (15.4 percent), cabbages (14.9 percent), and loose maize flour (13.4 percent) had their prices rise by huge margins, affecting the overall consumer basket.
“The price increase was primarily driven by a rise in prices of items in the food and non-alcoholic beverages (8.3 percent), transport (4.4 percent), and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (0.8 percent) over the one-year period,” KNBS said.
In August alone, bus fare between Mombasa and Nairobi rose from Sh1,300 to Sh1,500, marking the highest price jump of any item during the month. Family visits to the coast during the holiday season may have sparked the jump in fares during the month.
Other commodities, including cabbage (6.3 percent), carrots (2.4 percent), Sukuma Wiki (1.9 percent), mangoes (1.8 percent), and tomatoes (1.2 percent), also saw their prices rise sharply during the month, besides their annual inflation being high.
The food items witnessed a spike in prices even as the July rains overflowed into August, and at a time when many families were full with children closed for the August holidays.
KNBS, however, reckoned that while food and transport prices drove the inflation up, items in the energy sector witnessed a fall that calmed the surge.
“The cost of 50kWh dropped from Sh1,288.82 in July 2025 to Sh1,259.65 in August 2025. Similarly, the cost of 200kWh fell from Sh5,656.22 in July 2025 to Sh5,539.54 in August 2025,” the KNBS said.
Over the same period, fuel prices also came down when the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) declared a Sh1 drop in prices, bringing down petrol prices from Sh187.37 to Sh186.37 per litre.
KNBS noted that the three categories of items, food, transport, and energy, accounted for over 57 percent of the total weight across the 13 major expenditure categories.
