Famous “Chipo Mwitu” Vendor Bevalyne Kwamboka Closes Shop Over Expensive Potatoes, Cooking Oil

BT CorrespondentMar 15, 20221.8k

Famous potato chips vendor Bevalyne Kwamboka has closed her makeshift shop for selling potato chips, over what she terms as the high cost of cooking oil and potatoes.

In a tweet shared on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, Kwamboka alleged that the prices of the two commodities have almost tripled, leaving her with negligible profits.

“To all Chipo mwitu supporters, due to increase in waru (potatoes) and cooking oil prices we have officially ‘suspended’ selling Chipo until further notice. Waru was Ksh1200 now Ksh3200. Oil was Ksh1200 now Ksh2350 (10l). Profit ziko (are) almost zero. Let’s focus on avocado and matoke and part-time pupils coaching (sic),” she said.

Kwamboka has been selling chips at the Kware footbridge in Embakasi South for a couple of years while doubling as a student at Kenyatta University.

At one point, she said she depended on the business to support her education, claiming that if she closed shop she would be forced to defer her studies.

“This (business) is my mother, this is my father, this is my husband, this is my employment. If I stop this business, I will defer my university education and go back to my rural home…that will be the end of me, I will have to shift from Nairobi,” she said late last year.

In the recent past, Kenyans have been complaining of the high cost of living that touches important commodities such as sifted maize flour, bread, vegetables and fruits.

Food inflation rose 8.89 percent in January 2022 despite the decline in the overall rate of inflation, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) monthly Consumer Price Index.

The KNBS review indicated that the CPI increased by 0.31 percent from an index of 118.274 in December 2021 to 118.642 in January 2022. The month-to-month Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages Index increased by 1.07 percent between December 2021 and January 2022.