From bread to fuel: How Kenyans are quietly swindled
Consumers in Kenya are facing the effects of shrinkflation and skimpflation, where products are reduced in size or quality while prices remain the same or increase. The article highlights how everyday items like bread, cooking gas, and food portions are being impacted.
Why it matters
These economic phenomena erode consumer purchasing power and highlight the hidden costs of inflation on low-to-middle-income households.
EVERY lunchtime at a construction site in Nairobi’s Westlands area, Vincent Otieno steps out with his fellow workers to grab a meal at a roadside eatery popularly known as “kibanda”.
The most common meal is chapati and beans. For years, the price across many eateries has averaged Sh10 to Sh20 per chapati and Sh30 for a light plate of beans.
Today, the price remains the same, but the chapati has become noticeably thinner.
"You can finish one in just two bites. Someone like Peter here can even swallow one without a blink,” Otieno teases his friend.
For 42-year-old mother of three Catherine Wambui, a weekly shopping trip has become an exercise in disappointment.
She says many household products no longer last as long as they used to despite costing the same or even more.
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