Traders now want millers to compensate them Ksh175million for the losses encountered from selling 2kg packets of maize flour at Ksh100.
The traders through Retail Trade Association of Kenya (RETRAK) noted that they had already stocked bales of flour prior to President Uhuru Kenyatta's directive on Unga prices.
"We have commenced engagements with the respective maize mill suppliers to recover more than Ksh 175 million, which is a cumulative estimate of the higher price paid earlier to them to facilitate deliveries,
"It is instructive to note that fast moving commodities such as Unga are paid for in advance by retailers or in very thin credit terms which do not exceed 14 days," a statement by RETRAK reads in parts.
Traders across the country have decried counting losses after the directive which caught them off-guard.
According to the traders, the slash in prices has exposed them to losses summing up to millions of shillings from the stock bought before the directive.
Uhuru issues directive on Unga prices
In the directive announced by the Head of State on Wednesday, July 20, Unga prices were reduced to Ksh100 from Ksh230.
This according to the president was facilitated by a deal brokered between the government and maize millers.
"This programme of a subsidy approximately Ksh105 per 2kg pack of maize meal is meant to lower the cost of living for vulnerable households as we look for a sustainable solution to the recurrent rising prices of Unga very election," Uhuru stated.
The president made the announcement after meeting with millers at the State House.
"This moment requires us to act in unison in order to cushion the vulnerable in our society, as we continue to work out how to find sustainable means of dealing with this emerging trend,
"If my appeal to the millers is to practice a reasoned level of social ethics, my appeal to the political class is to exercise civic responsibility. To politicize the pain of the vulnerable without offering solutions is to mock the lifestyle of the same voters the politicians are appealing to," Uhuru added.
