Traders in Karamoja hike food prices over incomplete roads
The Moroto-Soroti Road that is currently under construction. Traders say food prices will lower once the road is complete. Photo by Steven Ariong
Moroto- Food prices in Karamoja sub-region have gone high because of poor roads that have made the sub-region hardly accessible.
The seven districts that constitute Karamoja sub-region such as Nakapiripirit, Moroto, Kotido, Kaabong, Napak and Amudat mainly purchase food from neighbouring sub-regions of Teso, Sebei, Bugisu and Lango.
But given the long distance and poor road infrastructure, that has continued to worsen due to the heavy rains, prices of food stuffs have abnormally gone high. Currently in Moroto District, a 1kg of supper rice that cost Shs3,000 is now at Shs4,000.
In Kotido, last month a kilogramme of rice cost Shs4,300 but it is now sold at Shs5,000.
A kilogramme of onions was previously at Shs1,500 but now goes for Shs3,000 and Shs2,400.
Traders are now selling a bag of 10kgs of posho at Shs28,000 from Shs17,000.
In Kotido and Kaabong, 10kgs of maize flour cost Shs33,000 and Shs30,000 respectively.
A bunch of matooke that was previously sold at Shs34,000 in Moroto Town is now at Shs40,000, Shs47,000 and Shs51,000 in Kotido and Kaabong, respectively.
The high food prices in the sub-region might force many residents to flee the area in search of favourable standards of living. Ms Joyce Nakiru, one of the traders in Moroto District, said transporting food stuffs from districts in Sebei and Teso sub-regions has become complicated because of the poor road network.
“By the time I reach to Karamoja, I have already made a loss of Shs100,000 in damages due to poor roads,” she said.
Ms Nakiru explained that even accessing food markets in the neighbouring sub-regions has also become difficult as most farmers did not have good harvest last year due to drought.
Joseph Guti, a trader in Kotido, said they have decided to increase the prices of food depending on their buying price and challenges encountered during transportation and delivery.
“The owners of these trucks also charge us expensively to transport our merchandise to Karamoja because of the bad roads,” he said.
However, the traders and the consumers in the region are optimistic that the food prices will be reduced, once government completes the ongoing tarmacking of Moroto-Soroti Road.
Currently, government is upgrading the 180 kilometre Moroto-Soroti Road that cost Shs395b. This is expected to easy the transportation of food stuffs in the sub-region once completed. “When the road is completed, there will be no reason to increase prices of food as the main challenge of transportation of commodities will be solved,” one of the traders only indentified as Mulembe said.
