The Competition Authority of Kenya has ordered a remedial order to Cleanshelf Supermarket, following investigations that it hiked the prices of its hand sanitizers under the Tropikal brand, an act seeming to depict the retailer as taking advantage of the spread of the Wuhan corona virus in the country.
In a statement, the Competition Authority of Kenya reveals that its investigations had unearthed that as of yesterday, two days after the first Corona Virus case had been reported in Kenya, Cleanshelf Supermarkets had hiked the price of its Tropikal brand of sanitizers by Kshs 200, up from the normal retail price of Kshs 1,000, in an act that took hours.
“ Under Section 70 of the Act, the Authority has established that the retailer has been unconscionably been unconscionably increasing the price of its 500 milimeter (ml) sanitizers, which is in contravention of Section 56 (1) of the Competition Act No 12 of 2010,” states the Act.
So, far, there are consumers have purchased 960 pieces of the hand sanitizers above the normal selling price.
The Competition Authority of Kenya has consequently ordered Cleanshelf Supermarket to contact and refund all of the same number of consumers and submit evidence that this has been done by March 26th, 2020.
“Cleanshelf Supermarket has exploited its relative strength as a retailer to commercially detriment its consumers whose bargaining position has been reduced following the pronouncement of the existence of the Wuhan Corona virus in Kenya,” says the Authority.
President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday announced that Kenya has recorded two cases of people who have been infected with the Wuhan Corona Virus, after confirming they had come into contact with the first patient that the state had identified on February 13th 2020 and can now be found in Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).
Consequently, the state had of yesterday issued out a raft of measure that the populace could adhere to as preventive measures against spread of the disease.
“ Travel suspensions for people seeking to travel into Kenya, Kenyan citizens and foreigners with a permit will be quarantined within the next 48 hours and the instruction will hold for the next one month; suspensions of ll education institutions; the encouragement of cashless transactions to avoid the risk of spread of transmission through physical touch; minimal congregation in places of worship, weddings, funerals; less congestion in public places and the use of soap, water and hand sanitizers in hospitals and shopping malls,” he says in a statement.
In another statement issued yesterday, President Kenyatta had stated that the government would take action against traders who would capitalise on the disease to hike the prices of goods and services.
“ I would like to emphasize that we will not entertain the hoarding or raising of the prices sold to the mwananchi who is taking advantage of this situation to create artificial shortages so that mwananchi is made to pay more than they should. Towards this end, the Competition Authority of Kenya will be given clear instructions and will be investigating anyone who is taking advantage of this,” says President Kenyatta.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), corona virus has already infected two-thirds of the world population. As of March 11th, there were 167, 845 cases of the disease that had been confirmed globally, with 6, 497 recorded deaths. It has consequently resulted in the ban of travel in over 50 countries.
