HIGH PRICES OF VEGETABLES UNBEARABLE

By Verah Chepkorir

The untimely increase of costs at the university has made living conditions tougher. Students can’t take it anymore. The hiked prices at the `mama mbogas` or rather, the grocery, has made life in campus unbearable. To be precise, let me say that in hostel K, we don’t live, we survive.

I have no idea whether the people at Soweto and those in the `diaspora` are undergoing the same hardship. A bunch of ‘dhania’ costs Ksh. 10, an increase from 5 bob. ‘Sukuma wiki’ and cabbage in that tiny tube- like polythene bag cost Ksh. 10 as well. Leave alone the tomatoes, at kshs 10 EACH, they are the worst-tiny, unripe, unhealthy…I even lack words to describe them and really, they prompted me into writing this piece.


Sometimes I am taken aback. I am yet to believe that back home, a bunch of ‘dhania’, almost thrice the size of the ones at Hostel K’s grocery, costs Ksh. 5 each. A polythene paper full of tomatoes costs Sh.10. This means that I buy a tomato for a bob or even less than that. The same thing applies to onions and capsicum. How I wish they were non-perishable, so that I could carry a stock for the whole semester.

Then, I could save the money to buy myself a pair of boots, a trench coat, a dinner dress, and the list is endless. Don’t mind about the statistics and calculations that I am making, but ‘hii msoto jo…’ I am neither a miser, nor an economics student. Ni kutetea haki za masufferer. Adding to the fact that HELB loan takes too much time to be processed, I am made to believe that there is no group of students currently in support of HELB loan.

Cooking has recently become an expensive method, and hence, one will prefer having lunch at the school cafeterias and the so-called mess. It’s rather cheap. Some will cook one meal per day, just to save something for tomorrow. Some will make tea or coffee, accompanied by mandazi or chapati from the chips café, just to adhere to the demands of their empty bellies. I won`t utter what the rest of the students do for a meal, no, let me withhold it for heaven`s sake. You may end up sobbing.

There is another class of people whose pockets will constantly read money no matter what. This is the group that includes Doghana and the other shopkeepers. They have their lunch in Hijaz, New Valley Hotel… name them. Ilhali wengine pesa zinawatoroka. Is there anyone among them who is willing to take action before the situation worsens?