Inflation Rises to 4.6% in September as Kenya’s Economy Expands by 5% in Q2

Kenyans are still grappling with the high cost of living despite slight drops in the prices of basic food items like maize flour and sugar.

According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), annual consumer inflation stood at 4.6 per cent in September 2025. This means the general price level was 4.6 per cent higher than in September 2024.

Releasing the Kenya Consumer Price Index and Inflation Report on Monday, September 30, 2025, KNBS said the September inflation was largely driven by the rising prices of items in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages category, which went up by 8.4 per cent.

“The September inflation was occasioned by the movement of national average retail prices of selected commodities,” KNBS said in the report.

Between August and September, the cost of some key household items eased slightly. “The price of maize grain loose (1 kg) dropped from Ksh70.93 to Ksh68.14, while the price of sifted maize flour (2 kg) decreased from Ksh 156.99 to Ksh 152.28,” the report stated.

Similarly, the price of sukuma wiki fell from Ksh 93.41 to Ksh 92.48, and sugar dropped marginally from Ksh 186.53 to Ksh 185.21.

However, not all food prices went down. “The price of cabbage (1 kg) rose from Ksh 89.25 in August to Ksh 91.67 in September 2025,” KNBS noted.

Fuel prices also showed a slight decline.

“The price of kerosene or paraffin (1 litre) declined marginally from Ksh156.76 to Ksh155.96, while the price of gas or LPG (13 kg) decreased slightly from Ksh3,158.35 to Ksh3,151.65,” the report added.

KNBS highlighted that the cost of transport rose by 4.0 per cent over the year, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels went up by 1.4 per cent. These three divisions together account for over 57 per cent of the total weight across the 13 major expenditure categories.

The bureau explained that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) tracks how the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services changes over time, comparing current prices to those in a base period, which for the current CPI is February 2019.

“The inflation rate is defined as a percentage change of the CPI between two periods,” KNBS said, adding that data for the report was collected during the second and third weeks of each month from a representative sample of retail outlets in 50 urban zones nationwide.

The report also showed that the overall CPI increased from 146.21 in August 2025 to 146.5 in September 2025.