Electronics stock goes down as elections fever takes toll

Kenyan electronic dealers say business has gone down due to the elections fever currently gripping the country forcing them to reduce stock.

According to a study by Data Fintech, there has been a major drop in the volume of television sets in the marketplace. Hisense, which was leading the market earlier in the year, has dropped by 14.9% in value on the marketplace to reach Ksh8.9 million.

Hisense is the fourth most popular brand in the Kenyan television market in 2017 and accounts for 11.5% of the total televisions sets listed on the marketplace in 2017.

The Ksh20,000 to Ksh40,000 segment has the highest number of listings with 37.4% of the total listings while the over Ksh40,000 segment holds the second position with 30.3% in the first two quarters of 2017.

According to the research conducted last month, electronic dealers are not restocking deciding to adopt a wait and see attitude in the wake of the 2017 elections. This is in view of past economic surveys, which show that the polarising and violent nature of Kenyan election politics and uncertainty about the outcome, are among the root causes of economic slowdown.

“In April and May 2017 there was an average of 3,147 television sets on the Pigiame online marketplace, whose volume amounted to an average of Ksh192 million. However, June 2017 saw a huge drop in both stock and volume with only 1,800 television sets,” states the report.

Simultaneously, laptops stock has dropped from 2,844 units in May 2017 to 844 units in June 2017 and mobile phones stock reached 2,358 units in June 2017, despite a monthly average of 3,500 units in the last  three months.

World Bank data shows that the economy has been more likely to slow down to a near standstill during multiparty election years than to grow or slow down slightly.

Having held a peaceful elections in 2002, Kenyans didn’t expect to experience violence in 2007, the reason the economy grew by a rate of seven per cent

However, controversy over the election contested between Kibaki and Raila sparked violence, resulting in the deaths of nearly one thousand people and the displacement of tens of thousands of Kenyans across the country. This slowed economic growth by 0.23% in 2008.

The fear of a repeat of the 2007/8 post-election violence has clouded the lead up to the August 8 hot contest pitting President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila with Uhuru accusing Raila of brewing violence whereas the latter is accusing the government of planning to rig the elections.