From bread to fuel: How Kenyans are quietly swindled

EVERY lunchtime at a construction site in Nairobi’s Westlands area, Vincent Otieno steps out with his fellow workers to grab a meal at a roadside eatery popularly known as “kibanda”.

The most common meal is chapati and beans. For years, the price across many eateries has averaged Sh10 to Sh20 per chapati and Sh30 for a light plate of beans.

Today, the price remains the same, but the chapati has become noticeably thinner.

"You can finish one in just two bites. Someone like Peter here can even swallow one without a blink,” Otieno teases his friend.

For 42-year-old mother of three Catherine Wambui, a weekly shopping trip has become an exercise in disappointment.

She says many household products no longer last as long as they used to despite costing the same or even more.

"I buy bread every morning for my children but nowadays the loaf feels much lighter. Tissue paper also finishes much faster and even cooking oil seems to run out sooner," she says.

For Willy Muchere, the biggest surprise came after refilling his 13kg cooking gas cylinder.

"My wife kept asking why the gas was finishing so fast. At first, we thought we were cooking more, but our cooking habits had not changed," he says.

Curious, he borrowed a weighing scale from a nearby hardware shop before the next refill.

"The cylinder appeared lighter than expected. I couldn't figure exactly where the problem was, but it made me question whether consumers always receive the full amount they pay for."

These are just a few among millions of Kenyans unknowingly caught in the growing grip of shrinkflation and skimpflation, two subtle forms of inflation that are quietly reducing the value consumers receive despite paying the same, or even higher prices.

Shrinkflation is a stealthy pricing tactic where manufacturers reduce the size or quantity of a product while keeping the retail price the same.

Companies use it to protect profit margins against rising production costs without directly triggering consumer shock.

On skimpflation, companies quietly lower the quality, durability or availability of a product or service while keeping the price the same. Unlike shrinkflation, which reduces a product's size or weight, skimpflation affects the user experience including quality.

Across Kenya, manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and service providers are increasingly cutting quantities or lowering quality instead of openly raising prices, leaving households paying more for less.

“It is a survival tactic in a tough business environment,” a leading manufacturer, who sought anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told the Star, indicating Kenya’s production costs remains “too high” compared to neighbouring countries.

This, he said, has seen a continued influx of cheaper goods from the region and Asian markets.

From supermarket shelves to neighbourhood butcheries, petrol stations and local eateries, consumers are increasingly discovering that their money simply no longer stretches as far as it once did.

A spot check by the Star over the weekend found numerous examples of products delivering less value than consumers deserve.

At one butchery in Umoja, meat sold as a standard weight measured below the expected quantity when checked using a calibrated weighing scale.

Similar spot checks on sugar and rice sold by some retailers, who buy in bulk and repackage, revealed discrepancies.

For many shoppers, however, the problem goes beyond isolated incidents.

Loaves that once filled a family breakfast table have become lighter. Cooking fat quantities have reduced and tissue paper rolls contain fewer sheets.

Biscuits come in smaller packets while chocolates, crisps and yoghurt servings have shrunk without corresponding reductions in prices.

Consumers also report similar changes in quantity and quality in everyday essentials including milk, cooking oil, margarine, wheat flour, maize flour, sugar, rice, tea, coffee, juice, soft drinks, toothpaste, detergents and soap, among others.

Customers increasingly complain of receiving fewer chips alongside meals, smaller chicken portions, thinner burger patties and pizzas carrying noticeably fewer toppings than they did just a few years ago.

Hotels have also embraced cost-cutting measures associated with skimpflation.

Some have reduced breakfast portions, cut back on complimentary services and reduced room-cleaning frequency while maintaining the same room rates.

For households already struggling with high living costs, these hidden reductions are proving almost as painful as outright price increases.

While Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data indicates inflation (the measure of the cost of living) slowed to 6.4 per cent in June, down from 6.7 per cent in May, many households think otherwise.

This, as food prices, transport costs and other essential household expenses continue to squeeze family budgets.

This is both on progressive months and in comparison to the same period in 2025, which shows Kenyans are worse off compared to a year ago.

Out of the 13 key indices used to measure inflation, nine recorded an upward trigger in June, three remained unchanged with only housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels recording a drop.

The Consumers Federation of Kenya says complaints relating to shrinkflation have risen significantly in recent years, particularly involving bread, cooking fat, tissue paper and liquefied coking gas.

Secretary general Stephen Mutoro said many consumers do not immediately realise they are receiving less because product packaging often remains virtually unchanged.

"Shrinkflation without clear disclosure squarely offends Kenya's Consumer Protection Act, 2012," Mutoro told the Star.

Section 13 of the Act prohibits false, misleading or deceptive representations regarding quantity, while Section 14 addresses unconscionable business conduct.

"If a 400-gram loaf becomes 350 grams in the same wrapper at the same price with no prominent notice, that is a misrepresentation as to quantity, not simply a pricing decision immune from scrutiny.

"The laws are largely adequate on paper but weak in enforcement and disclosure design," Mutoro said.

He identifies three major weaknesses. First, there is no mandatory requirement for manufacturers to disclose reductions in package sizes over a specified period.

Second, consumer complaints often fall between multiple regulators.

While the Kenya Bureau of Standards oversees product standards, the Weights and Measures Department enforces measurement accuracy, while the Competition Authority of Kenya handles unfair trade practices.

"The result is fragmented enforcement where nobody takes full responsibility," Mutoro said.

Third, the informal sector, which serves millions of Kenyans, remains largely outside routine surveillance.

Manufacturers, however, insist the trend is driven by survival rather than greed.

Industry players cite rising electricity tariffs, expensive fuel, increasing taxation, imported raw material costs, exchange rate volatility, higher labour expenses, costly packaging materials and expensive credit as factors squeezing production costs.

Many businesses say they are left with only two difficult choices; increase retail prices and risk losing customers, or quietly reduce product sizes while maintaining affordable price points.

Kebs has thrown the ball into the Weights and Measures court.

“This is a weight and measures matter. They control gazetted weights. For us, it is mainly quality,” the standards body told the Star.

It has however previously urged consumers to buy goods only from compliant traders, verify that weighing scales carry valid inspection stamps and report suspicious equipment to the relevant authorities.

By the time of going to press, neither the Weights and Measures directorate nor the Competition Authority of Kenya had responded to inquiries.

The Star investigation also uncovered evidence of outright consumer fraud through the use of underweight goods and tampered weighing equipment, suggesting that shrinkflation is increasingly being compounded by illegal practices that short-change unsuspecting buyers.

Officials familiar with the matter say Kenya is witnessing an influx of substandard weighing scales, many imported cheaply and sold openly through online marketplaces and informal electronics shops.

According to a senior trade official familiar with the issue, some of the non-compliant commercial scales retail for as little as Sh4,000, compared with certified commercial weighing equipment costing between Sh40,000 and Sh160,000 depending on capacity.

"The cheaper scales often fail to meet accuracy standards, making it easier for dishonest traders to manipulate measurements without consumers noticing," the official in the State Department for Trade who also sought anonymity, since they are not allowed to speak for the Trade Ministry, told the Star.

Even certified weighing scales are not immune from abuse, with enforcing officers saying some traders tamper with mechanical scales using hidden magnets or heavier weighing plates to distort readings in their favour.

Others manipulate digital scales by altering calibration settings or programming higher unit prices that inflate the amount payable while displaying seemingly correct weights.

Fuel stations have previously come under investigation over allegations of dispenser tampering, where electronic pulsators or calibration systems are altered to display one litre while delivering significantly less fuel into motorists' tanks.

Under such schemes, a fuel pump may indicate that it has dispensed a full litre even though only a fraction of that quantity actually leaves the nozzle.

Regulators have previously warned motorists to remain vigilant and report suspicious fuel pumps, but consumer groups argue inspections remain too infrequent to deter rogue operators.

A senior weights and measures officer admitted enforcement has become increasingly difficult due to inadequate staffing and limited resources.

"There are rampant cases of underweight products, tampering with weighing instruments and manipulation of fuel pump calibration," the officer said.

Kenya's Weights and Measures Act provides stiff penalties for traders found using false weighing or measuring instruments.

Anyone convicted of using inaccurate weighing equipment faces fines, imprisonment for up to three years, or both.

Courts may also order confiscation of the offending equipment and prohibit traders from continuing to deal in the affected goods.

Economists say the phenomenon is unlikely to disappear soon.

“This is something that is likely to continue being witnessed as manufacturers try to survive and remain competitive and profitable in a market full of cheaper imports, including at border towns where less expensive products enter the Kenyan through porous borders,” Cliff Osoro, an independent economist, said.

Consumer organisations are now calling for mandatory disclosure whenever manufacturers reduce product sizes, stronger market surveillance and tougher enforcement of weights and measures laws.