A bag of charcoal is currently retailing at Sh2,500 from an average of Sh1,500 three weeks ago, following the three-month suspension on logging in all forests.
A four-kilogramme tin of charcoal that is mostly used to sell the commodity to low-income households is now priced at an average of Sh120, from Sh70 a month ago.
Charcoal prices have more than doubled since 2008 when the tin retailed at an average of Sh35, indicating that low-income households have had to dig deeper into their pockets to cook their meals. The price inflation comes even as data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) showed that the price of a four-kilogramme tin of charcoal rose 6.3 per cent to an average of Sh84.5 in February compared to Sh79.7 in a similar period a year ago.
Destruction of Kenya’s key forests like the Mau Complex has been blamed on charcoal dealers’ pursuit of quick profits in urban centres.
