REVEALED! This is the reason you aint getting the KES. 90 GOK UNGA.

An almost empty shelf set aside to stock maize flour in a supermarket(left) and on your right is trolley packed with about 10 packets of subsidised unga by a client in one of the supermarkets in Thika Town.

It’s almost a month now since the government introduced the Sh. 90 subsidised maize flour, but majority of Kenyans have never laid their hands on it…. the shelves are always empty.

Have you asked yourself why yet the government keeps assuring Kenyans there is enough unga for everyone.

A spot-check by Thika Town Today across various supermarkets in town on Wednesday unearthed the puzzle behind this shortage. We are the problem, not the government. We can reliably confirm that the shortage is artificial and can be attributed to shoppers buying in bulks.

And this is how they are ‘unleashing their terror’……

Most supermarkets are releasing new stock in the morning, hence you won’t miss it in most cases when you visit the supermarket before 11am. However, it is not a guarantee that you will get it in the morning in all supermarkets.

In supermarkets that do not limit the number of packets that one can buy, some of the customers are taking home as many as ten packets as witnessed in one of the outlets we visited. In supermarkets that won’t allow you to pick more than the set limit per head (say one or two), cunning customers are visiting the outlets with family or friends where each is picking the maximum allowed number of packets per head.

For instance, if Supermarket A allows a maximum of 2 packets per head and we are five in number, each one of us picks the two packets and this translates to 10 packets in total for one household, thereby denying other customers the opportunity to at least get their share.

Others are revisiting the supermarket for as many as three times to buy the same commodity.

Some crafty customers have the contacts of the supermarket attendants who act as their informants by always alerting them whenever new stock arrives. In return, they appreciate the attendants with some airtime, a kafifty bob or some other form of goodies. This way, they will never miss unga in their house.

For those who can afford it, or those who can pool resources together as a group, they are able to get the unga in bulk directly from the millers, eventually buying themselves enough stock to last them for a month.

Now you know why getting the much treasured GOK maize flour has been an uphill task with only the ‘rich’ and the ‘smart’ getting easy access to the precious powder. Kenyans are aggressive shoppers and are not convinced that the cheap unga will last, hence the rush-buying.