At least 26,000 persons who had applied to be enlisted in the Inua Jamii scale-up program last year will have to wait a little longer before being enrolled to benefit from the Sh2,000 monthly stipend.
Nyeri County Director of Children’s Services Kung’u Mwaniki says it’s only those currently captured under the Government Consolidated Cash Transfer Program Management Information System (CCTPMIS) who will receive disbursement for the month of December, as announced by Labor and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore yesterday.
Kung’u, however, hastened to add that individuals who had applied to be considered for the national social security funding will soon receive notifications once the State finalizes computing all the applications.
“It is true that payments for those who are currently captured in our database are now ongoing, as announced yesterday. However, for those who had applied for consideration last year, we are yet to receive notification with regard to the status of their applications. This means they will have to wait until such a time when we get confirmation in regard to the beneficiaries who will be considered for the next phase,” he told KNA.
By the end of last year, Nyeri had registered a total of 26,606 new applicants for the Inua Jamii program that had officially closed on September 30.
The Government rolled out a nationwide registration exercise on September 1 last year to widen the bracket of needy individuals on state social security support and had planned to end the exercise after two weeks but this was afterwards extended for a fortnight to avoid locking out deserving cases.
A total of 500,000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and Persons with Severe Disabilities (PWSDs) had been targeted in the listing.
In Nyeri, the Government had targeted a total of 3,952 new beneficiaries for the OVC and PWSDs, but this figure has surpassed the initial projection by 3,280 persons.
Some 1,044,922 Inua Jamii beneficiaries across the country are expected to benefit from the Sh2.08 billion that has been released by the state for the social welfare program, according to CS Bore.
The CS also clarified that OVCs and PWSDs will now have their monthly stipends disbursed through their Mpesa accounts, unlike in the past, when such monies were sent through individual bank accounts.
However, beneficiaries under the Older Persons Cash Transfer (OP-CT) program will continue receiving their money through their respective bank accounts.
Kung’u said the payments will assist families taking care of orphans and vulnerable children ahead of schools’ opening next week.
“Following the timely release of the December stipends by Treasury, families taking care of orphans and vulnerable children will now have some money to prepare their children before schools open for the new term next week. We believe those receiving the funds will therefore utilize the money to meet the needs of the beneficiaries,” he pointed out.
The state began disbursing funds for the Inua Jamii cash transfer program on a monthly basis last year to address perennial backlogs that had turned out to be an added pain for the intended beneficiaries.
The move came at a time when beneficiaries on the social safety net had been forced to wait for months before receiving the dues.
By early August last year, the State Department for Social Protection and Senior Citizens had managed to disburse a total of Sh2.8 billion as payment for the month of July.
The state also released an extra S 4.3 million for the Nutrition Improvement through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) program, which complements the Inua Jamii initiative.
A total of 1,042,864 persons were expected to benefit from the disbursement.
In Nyeri, the state was to disburse Sh2,000 each to 4,800 households through the CT-OVC and a similar amount to 17,000 elderly persons under the Older Persons program for the same month.
For one to access the monthly stipend, they must be registered through the CCTPMIS.
In addition, one must be in possession of an Inua Jamii payment card, a national identity card, and a caregiver identification card every time he or she wants to make a withdrawal.
Beneficiaries have the liberty to choose among six banks as their payment service provider.
They include Equity, Cooperative, National Bank, Kenya Women Microfinance Trust, Kenya Commercial Bank, and Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (Post Bank)
President William Ruto promised that his administration would be diligent in ensuring the timely disbursement of the funds to enable the most vulnerable in society to enhance their quality of life.
The OPCT, PWSD-CT, and CT-OVC programs were established in September 2013 to uplift the lives of the most vulnerable members of society and enable them to meet their basic needs.
The National Safety Net Programme (NSNP) covers a total of 1.2 million households in the three cash transfer programmes.
By Samuel Maina
