Nairobi City Market. Photo: Bahnfrend via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Inflation rises to 6.6pc as food and fares bite.
Kenya's annual inflation rose to 6.6 per cent in August 2026, up from 6.5 per cent in July, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. It is the second month in a row that the rate has climbed.
Food and non-alcoholic drinks were 9.0 per cent more expensive than a year earlier, while transport costs were up 15.7 per cent. Together the two account for nearly two-thirds of the headline figure. Housing, water, electricity and fuels rose 3.6 per cent.
What got dearer
Year on year, Irish potatoes were up 32.7 per cent, sukuma wiki 29.8 per cent, cabbages 21.7 per cent, oranges 18.8 per cent and beef with bones 12.1 per cent. Diesel eased 2.2 per cent on the month to Sh219.04 a litre but remains 26.8 per cent higher than a year ago; petrol is 15.3 per cent costlier than last August. Inter-town bus and matatu fares rose 2.1 per cent in the month, and mobile-money transfer charges 1.5 per cent.
What got cheaper
A 2kg packet of maize flour fell from Sh157.15 to Sh152.89, and sugar is 10.8 per cent cheaper than a year ago. Tomatoes eased 2.2 per cent on the month.
Core inflation, which strips out food and fuel, stood at 3.4 per cent, against 14.7 per cent for the volatile items – a sign that the pressure is coming from the shopping basket rather than the wider economy. Analysts link it to higher fuel costs since the Middle East conflict and below-average rains hitting food output.
For households in Kibra, the items that take the biggest share of weekly spending – vegetables, potatoes, fares and M-Pesa charges – are rising well ahead of the 6.6 per cent headline.
Sources: Business Daily; Reuters via CNBC Africa; People Daily; The Standard
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
Kenya’s annual inflation rose to 6.6 per cent in August 2026, up from 6.5 per cent in July, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. It is the second month in a row that the rate has climbed.
Food and non-alcoholic drinks were 9.0 per cent more expensive than a year earlier, while transport costs were up 15.7 per cent. Together the two account for nearly two-thirds of the headline figure. Housing, water, electricity and fuels rose 3.6 per cent.
What got dearer
Year on year, Irish potatoes were up 32.7 per cent, sukuma wiki 29.8 per cent, cabbages 21.7 per cent, oranges 18.8 per cent and beef with bones 12.1 per cent. Diesel eased 2.2 per cent on the month to Sh219.04 a litre but remains 26.8 per cent higher than a year ago; petrol is 15.3 per cent costlier than last August. Inter-town bus and matatu fares rose 2.1 per cent in the month, and mobile-money transfer charges 1.5 per cent.
What got cheaper
A 2kg packet of maize flour fell from Sh157.15 to Sh152.89, and sugar is 10.8 per cent cheaper than a year ago. Tomatoes eased 2.2 per cent on the month.
Core inflation, which strips out food and fuel, stood at 3.4 per cent, against 14.7 per cent for the volatile items — a sign that the pressure is coming from the shopping basket rather than the wider economy. Analysts link it to higher fuel costs since the Middle East conflict and below-average rains hitting food output.
For households in Kibra, the items that take the biggest share of weekly spending — vegetables, potatoes, fares and M-Pesa charges — are rising well ahead of the 6.6 per cent headline.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
