Investment, Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary (CS) Moses Kuria was left embarrassed on Wednesday night during a panel interview at Citizen TV after he made contradictory remarks on the price of cooking oil in the country.

While responding to a presentation showing the prices of cooking oil, Kuria claimed on live television that the prices listed were not factual. The embattled CS then went ahead to throw jabs at the journalists and Citizen TV over the matter.

The presentation displayed by the local media house made a comparison between the prices of the precious commodity in September 2022 and September this year. The prices are currently at Ksh340 per litre down from Ksh450 per litre in 2022.

However, Kuria dismissed the report claiming that the prices were actually lower than what was projected. He went on to claim that President William Ruto's administration had lowered the price of the precious commodity by 50 per cent contrary to what was being shown.

When tasked to state what the current prices are, the CS claimed that the prices had been reduced to Ksh240 per litre.

“Cooking oil is much lower than what you project there, and Kenyans know that. You’ve said correctly that the price has come down, but it’s not even to the level you have said. It is by 50% since we came to government.

“I know for sure that the price of edible oil is much lower than that. It’s in the region of Ksh230 to Ksh240…everyone can be entitled to their own opinions but not everyone can be entitled to their own facts. Facts are universal. I want us to also look at the price of sugar," the CS said.

However, upon confirmation from a local supermarket, the prices indicated were in fact not as low as the CS had claimed.

Varying on different brands, the cooking oil prices per litre were selling at Ksh355 whereas another was priced at Ksh347, and others Ksh325 and Ksh307.