Cheap unga sparks ugly scrambles in Kisumu stores – PHOTOS
Kisumu residents on Monday dashed to stores, shops and depots to pick the subsidized maize flour after it hit the shelves in the region.
The struggle was characterized by long queues and push and shove as retailers sought to get the commodity from the millers.
Supermarkets in the area had run out of stock, while some limited the purchase to only a packet of two kilograms.
Some helpless women who could not struggle took a back seat to watch as men scrambled for the flour.
Outside the stores, motorcycles, tuk tuks and boda boda operators were on standby to cash in on the numbers as they waited to ferry the flour to various destinations.
Maize shortage continue to bite in the entire country even as national government brought in the subsidized maize flour.
The Cereal Millers Association said it had not met demand for the subsidized flour, terming the 335, 000 bags of Mexican maize imported on May 9 inadequate.
Mr Rodgers Owuor went to Tuskys Supermarket and was told not to pick more than two packets of two kilogram maize flour.
“I have a big family and limiting the quantity I should be taking as a customer will force me to look for the commodity elsewhere,” said Mr Owuor.
The same is replicated at Tumaini and Khetias supermarkets in the Lakeside city where shoppers have to do with the measured quantity.
At the United Millers depot, there were long queues on Monday of people seeking to get the maize flour.
Mrs Mercy Aluoch, a resident from Rabuor about 12 kilometers from the CBD, arrived at the stores at 5am and by 10am she had yet to be served.
To her disappointment, customers were restricted to only one bundle of maize flour.
The bundle has 12 two-kilogram packets of maize flour and was being sold at Sh1020.
Initially the same quantity went for Sh1, 800 and Sh1, 900 at the millers’ depot.
“I usually take at least three bundles of flour everyday so that I can sell it in my shop in Rabuor. The 12 packets I have today will not even last an hour in my shop following the high demand for the commodity,” said Mrs Aluoch.
She added that, they no longer get a sack of maize flour which they used to repack in polythene bas and sell at a lower price than the ones in packet.
