Moses Kuria, the cabinet secretary for investment, trade, and industry, received an egg on the face on Wednesday night after making an unsupported claim on live television and then having it quickly debunked.
CS Kuria was a member of the Cabinet team for “The Big Conversation,” a collaborative production of Royal Media Services that examined President William Ruto’s successes and shortcomings during his first year in office.
Sam Gituku, a news anchor for Citizen TV, first brought up the issue by estimating that the price of cooking oil in the nation will be Ksh. 340 per litre on September 13, 2023, down from Ksh. 450 on the same date in 2018.
The CS, however, disputed the statistic and asserted that Kenya Kwanza government initiatives had significantly reduced it from the prediction.
I wish your numbers were accurate. Don’t forget that someone is watching you from a supermarket if you take joy in having the most watched TV in the nation, he urged.
The price of cooking oil in Kenya is substantially lower than what you estimate. Although you are accurate that the price has decreased, it hasn’t even reached the amount you stated. Since we joined the government, it has decreased by 50%.
CS Kuria went on to say that he had it on good information that the price of cooking oil was at least Ksh.100 cheaper than the celebrated journalist’s approximation when he was requested by Gituku to submit his own figure to contest the Ksh.340 he had presented.
It is considerably less than that, maybe between Ksh 230 and Ksh 240…All people have the right to their own opinions, but not all people have the right to their own facts. Facts apply to everyone, he said.
In less than 20 minutes, John Wanyama of Citizen TV’s Eldoret bureau went live from a Naivas supermarket outlet in the North Rift town and displayed some of the prices of the various cooking oil brands available there.
Some of the figures were lower than Gituku’s projection, others were higher, but none was anywhere near CS Kuria’s alleged authoritative figure.
The spot-check by Wanyama revealed that one brand was selling it’s one litre price of cooking oil at Ksh.355, another at Ksh.347, while the relatively cheaper ones were Ksh.307 and Ksh.325.
When confronted with these new figures, CS Kuria’s only defence was for the Citizen TV crew in Eldoret to “now go to Ruiru” and also check out the prices there because “we’re here for two hours, what’s the hurry for?”
