There has been a milk shortage in the country with President Dr William Samoei Arap Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance Government admitting the same.
Government chief economic adviser David Ndii has triggered widespread debate across the political spectrum after attributing Kenya’s persistent domestic milk shortage to surging demand from construction workers employed under the administration’s flagship affordable housing program.
Speaking at a corporate economic forum in Nairobi, the head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers dismissed claims of a agricultural production crisis.
He argued that national dairy output had expanded substantially over recent seasons, leaving increased consumption as the sole statistical driver for empty supermarket shelves and surging retail prices.
According to Ndii, the government’s ambitious mass housing initiatives have mobilized hundreds of thousands of previously low-income site laborers whose daily operational provisions now regularly include packaged milk rations provided by contractors.
This sudden structural shift, he asserted, absorbed significant market volumes before processing brands reached urban retail chains.
The remarks immediately drew sharp pushback from political opposition figures, consumer rights groups, and dairy industry analysts.
Critics accused the government economist of employing theoretical sophistry to deflect responsibility from underlying structural failures within the agricultural supply chain.
Regulatory reports from sector monitors indicate a drop in formal milk deliveries to commercial processors over recent months, pointing toward elevated feed costs, localized climate shocks, and distribution bottlenecks as the primary sources of market tightening rather than an unprecedented spike in blue-collar consumption.
Opposition leaders framed the assertion as evidence of administrative detachment from everyday economic hardships facing households struggling with food inflation.
Meanwhile, public commentary across social platforms poked fun at the government’s economic reasoning, questioning the political strategy of linking state-sponsored housing projects to staple food deficits.
The controversy underlines mounting political pressure on the administration to address rising living expenses and stabilize essential commodity chains as fiscal policy adjustments continue to face public scrutiny.
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