Published:September 9th, 2011 10:15 EST

Battling Tough Times

Breakfast is the most essential meal of the day. This is solely because when one is asleep the body utilizes all the food that he/she had eaten that day, hence waking up on an empty stomach.

The common type of food that most Kenyan`s especially those residing in urban towns eat for breakfast is tea. The reason being it is the country`s primary export and it`s readily available.

Sugar sweetens tea among other drinks. For some reason the country is facing a scarcity of this commodity. The price of sugar has been steadily increasing for the past three months. The steady increase has however taken a whole new turn. A kilogramme of sugar which retailed at Shs.90 now goes for Shs.230; which is causing many to adopt new ways to sweeten their tea.

The few people who earn an average income are the one`s finding themselves on sugar shelves in supermarkets. Others have designed new ways of coping with high sugar prices. Absurd as it may sound; people are buying sweets and using them as a substitute for sugar in their tea. The remaining masses apply honey on bread and take it with sugarless tea while a bigger percentage give up the sugar altogether.

There is however no signs of these prices coming down anytime soon as the country is the middle of a crisis. It started with the ICC case, then to sugar prices and now the ongoing teacher`s strike.

Tough times have certainly called for desperate measures. But as the saying goes: "if it doesn`t kill you, it makes you stronger." Many Kenyans will continue wearing a happy face despite their woes. People are however positive that things will get better soon.