Panic causes Kenyan Supermarkets and Chemist to Hoard Masks and Sanitizers to make abnormal profits :(
Nobody knows exactly how deadly COVID-19 is, but according to the most reliable and recent information we have, more than 95% of people who get it survive. And though people of all ages have tested positive for the disease, the illness is much more dangerous and lethal among the elderly or those who already have an underlying health condition.
Yet the alarm it has raised, the economic and social disruption it has caused, has been intense worldwide.
In Kenya when the Minister for Health broke the news Kenyans went on a hysteria mode, the rich who can afford commodities flooded supermarkets to stock on food, hand sanitizers and masks
People have cleared shelves of hand sanitizer and some supermarkets have been accussed of hoarding. A spot check in Nairobi Yaya area hand sanitizer prices have skyrocketed from 170 Ksh to 700 Ksh.
A piece of mask that would be sold at 10 Ksh is now been sold at 50 Ksh a piece.
Donald B Kipkorir the flamboyant lawyer posted on his tweeter account, the tweet “Whole of Italy is in complete lockdown & no hysteria & no change of prices of goods & services … In Kenya, only ONE person has tested + & some pple want to cause hysteria .. Others are already cashing in .. masks that cost 50/= are now selling for 3K .. #coronavirusinKenya
Those cashing on #coronaviruskenya should be charged under The Terrorism Act for economic sabotage”
The price of protective masks has tripled in Nairobi over the past month on increased demand from local pharmacies and hospitals as well as dealers exporting the gear following the coronavirus outbreak.
A manufacturer of the masks, Nairobi Enterprises Limited (NEL), said that the price of a box containing 50 units of the protective gear had surged from Ksh500 to the current Ksh1,700 on the wholesale market.
This means the wholesale price of a single mask has increased from Ksh10 to Ksh 50 .
The famous activist Mildred Atty Owiso posted on Buyer Beware “Shopping Pandemonium!Kenyans of means, please take as slow…Back to hoarding y’ll”
