Inflation rose by 1 per cent in 2026

A trader tends to his goods. [File, Standard]

Inflation in Kenya rose to 6.7 per cent in May 2026, from 5.6 per cent in April 2025, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has announced.

According to KNBS Director General Macdonald Obudho the increase was driven by high prices of food, transport, housing and fuel, as per the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.

“Consumer Price Index (CPI) is defined as a measure of the weighted aggregate change over time in retail prices paid by consumers for a given basket of goods and services,” said KNBS.

According to the data food and non-alcoholic beverages rose by 9.4 per cent, transport 16.5 per cent, and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels all rose by 3.4 per cent in the last one year.

“These three divisions together account for over 57 per cent of the total weight across the 13 major expenditure categories,” said KNBS.

The report notes a sharp increase in the prices of vegetables, cabbage and spinach, increased by 5 per cent between April and May 2026.

In the same period the price of diesel rose by 18 per cent while the price of petrol rose by 8.4 per cent which led the increase in tuktuk fares by 12 per cent.

The price of electricity for households consuming 50 kWh and 200 kWh declined by 2.4 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively, during the same period.

Kerosene price increased by 25.3 per cent.

KNBS in their report said that CPI measures the cost of purchasing this fixed basket of goods and services, comparing current prices to those of a base period, for which the current CPI is February 2019.

“Inflation rate is defined as a percentage change of the CPI between two periods. There are different inflation rates that can be computed, such as annual (year-on-year), quarterly (quarter-to-quarter) and monthly (month-on-month) inflation rates.”

The bureau said that they data used to determine inflation rates is collected through monthly survey of retail prices from statistically representative samples of outlets in urban areas across 50 data collection zones in the country

“The survey is conducted during the second and third weeks of the month,” said KNBS.

“The Overall CPI and Inflation Trends between May 2025 – May 2026 indicates overall index increased from 152.15 in April 2026 to 154.56 in May 2026, resulting in a monthly inflation rate of 1.6 per cent. The year-on year inflation stood at 6.7 per cent in May 2026,” read the report.