NAIROBI, Kenya, May 29 – Kenya’s annual inflation rose to 6.7 percent in May 2026, up from 5.6 percent in April 2024, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The increase was driven by higher prices of food, transport and fuel, as captured in the latest Consumer Price Index report.
KNBS data shows the price increase was primarily driven by a rise in prices of items in the Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (9.4%); Transport (16.5%), and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other fuels (3.4%) over the one-year period.
“These three divisions together account for over 57 per cent of the total weight across the 13 major expenditure categories,” the KNBS stated.
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.
The CPI measures the cost of purchasing this fixed basket of goods and services, comparing current prices to those of a base period, which for the current CPI is February 2019.
Inflation rate is defined as a percentage change of the CPI between two periods.
Data used to derive the inflation rates is collected through a monthly survey of retail prices from a statistically representative sample of outlets in urban areas across 50 data collection zones nationwide.
The survey is conducted during the second and third weeks of the month.
“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-onyear inflation stood at 6.7 per cent in May 2026,” read the monthly report.
