The Law of Price and the Time of the Month

Yesterday, I arrived home past 10 in the night, which is quite late for my area. Reason been that I was trying to satisfy the law of demand and supply of transport to Kahawa, where I live. According to the economics I was taught before my university was abruptly closed, price drops when demand is low and supply is high. As for yesterday, the more than 20 empty matatus at the bus stop insisted that they had to charge rush hour fare-despite absence of willing passengers at the bus stop-which had only enough passengers to fill 2 omnibuses(Nissans).

I came to realize that the law of demand and supply is not the case in this metropolis of ours, Nairobi. Apparently, its population is quite sizable for the metroplois to disregard common economic laws and come up with it's own replacements. After a quick research, albeit free of common typing errors, I found out that we now have a law of price versus time.

This law states that the price of a good or service will increase & remain constant at a high price at the beginning/end of a month , and then drop to adopt the normal laws of demand and supply during other periods of the month. Below is a graph depicting the law of price and time of the month.

Despite this law, after sourcing carefully, and avoiding common typing errors, you can find a seller whose price is dictated by the law of demand and supply. For example, I had to connect home via Githurai matatus , resulting in a 20-30 shilling(50%) difference for the same journey. As for those who do not have time to source for such sellers, you have no option rather than to follow such laws, you can give your comments below on your encounter with this law.

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Dennis Kioko

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