Quickmart clarifies position on allegedly misuse of unga ‘discount’ deals
Quickmart Supermarket has distanced itself from a statement on social media purporting to have come from the retail chain.
The statement has been doing rounds on social media, calling out leaders allied to the Kenya Kwanza government for allegedly using items on promotion to mislead the general public that the cost of living had started coming down.
Quickmart, through its official social media pages, said the statement did not originate from its management terming it as false and misleading and should be ignored by Kenyans.
It urged Kenyans to follow their official social media pages for authentic information.
“Beware of misinformation! The above message is false and should be ignored,” Quickmart Kenya captioned a photo of the fake statement.
The fake statement surfaced on social media after a section of leaders, among them Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi said that the price of a 2 kg packet of maize flour had dropped to Sh130 from Sh230.
The CS in a post on social media on November 24, stated that he had visited several supermarkets in Nairobi in a bid to confirm the prices of the crucial commodity.
In his response, the Linturi confirmed that prices for a 2-kilogram packet of unga had reduced from a high of Sh235 in 2022 to a low of up to Sh130 per 2kg packet.
He then went on to attribute the drop to efforts by the government and farmers in maximizing maize production.
“I’m happy to note that in all the major supermarkets, the unga prizes have reduced from a high of Sh235 last year to a low of up to Sh130 per 2kg packet. I commend our farmers for their efforts on the farms to feed our great nation,” Linturi shared.
“The government of President William Ruto will work tirelessly to bring down the cost of food.”
In the original statement, it claimed that government-allied bloggers and senior officials were using promotional prices to claim that prices of commodities had dropped.
It added that this could be misleading.
“We are aware of the continued use of prices quoted on different items on discount/offer in our different outlets by government-affiliated bloggers and high-ranking officials, including at the level of Cabinet Secretaries.
“Against this background, the company would like to clarify that the prices displayed on the various items under promotion are greatly discounted. Therefore, using these prices only as the basis to launch a claim of a significant drop in the cost of basic goods like maize flour in the country may be misleading,” it claimed.