One hundred cohorts of the National Hygiene Programme(Kazi Mtaani) in Kiuu ward of Githurai location in Kiambu County have formed a community based Organization(CBO) from their wages.
The overall supervisor with the programme in Githurai location Ms. Wambui Ndirangu yesterday while speaking to KNA from Githurai railway station which is also a beneficiary of the service from the cohorts had opted to get more organised so that they could put their resources together for a rainy day.
‘This particular group has exhibited extreme capability of advancing with the wages they were drawing without looking at it negatively” she said.
According to the supervisor, the CBO has now been in existence for 3 weeks and had even registered the group with the relevant government institutions. They further held their first activity last weekend when they participated in their first activity of National cleanup day by cleaning Githurai market, she noted.
She reckoned that the willingness of the members paying the registration fee of 100 shillings per person was an indication that they were ready to take risks by walking together and even using the CBO to upscale their activities either individually or as a group as they now had a collateral they could use to borrow from financial institutions.
Ms. Ndirangu says after pulling together for a while, the group which was conceived and headed by Rispa Ochieng and Mr. Joe Njuguna envisage at forming a SACCO from where they can be borrowing money and progressing in various areas as they fend for their families, therefore improving their living standards.
The CBO is among the fruits of the NHP Phase 2 10 billion shillings fund which was directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta two months ago which is meant to cushion young people drawn from 47 counties from effects of COVID-19 by paying them 455 per day.
The programme was preceded by the World Bank funded programme which was piloted in 8 counties in which workers were paid 600 shillings and was only conducted in informal settlements. Other counties were Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Mandera as they had been identified to have vast informal settlements which needed to be cleared.
When the second phase of the NHP began in July, the workers were divided into two who are scheduled to work for 11 days after which they take a break to give the second team to work for another 11 days.
Only supervisors have been given an opportunity to work continuously in the program which has taken on board 23,075 workers as they do not break.
By Lydia Shiloya
