The government spends Sh560 million per month on Nairobi youths under the National Hygiene Programme, popularly known as Kazi Mtaani, whose first phase was rolled out in April.
The 53,733 youths and their 1,791 supervisors were recruited from the city's 11 subcounties.
Each earns Sh455 daily while supervisors take home Sh505 each per day, according to the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Their job includes building access roads, opening drainages, tree planting and garbage collection. You have to be in the 18 -35 age category to be recruited.
At Mathare 3C village in Mabatini ward, the youths have cleared garbage and unclogged drainages. And the job continues. The improved standard of hygiene in the area is evident.
At Makina market in Kibera, walkways are being paved with cobblestone while the youths are sweeping streets, collecting garbage and planting trees in Mukuru, Eastleigh and Korogocho.
Under Phase Two, which was rolled out on July 13, the youths are painting and repairing government facilities, greening estates and engaging in urban agriculture in 173 informal settlements.
County officials say Kazi Mtaani has reduced crime and kept the youth from drugs, alcohol and immorality.
The programme is an initiative of President Uhuru Kenyatta who rolled it out on April 25 as one of the economic stimuli for informal settlements. It has benefited over 10,600 youths in Mathare, Kibera, Mukuru and Korogocho informal settlements alone.
Phase Two of the programme covers over 1,000 informal settlements in 47 counties.
Over 280,000 youths across the country are benefiting from the Sh10 billion initiative. Payment is via M-Pesa only after Safaricom waived the recovery of Fuliza loans to save indebted youths from automatic recovery of loans from the earnings.
"Through this initiative, the participants have a grace period where they can withdraw their earnings once paid," Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said last month (main story).
He said the M-Pesa payment ensures transparency and accountability.
Kazi Mtaani is meant to cushion jobless youths from the adverse economic effects of Covid-19.
“The Kazi Mtaani concept is the provision of social relief through job opportunities and hygiene facilitation to help contain the Covid-19 pandemic in informal urban settlements,” Hinga said.
He said the first cycle of payments had a 92 per cent success rate. The remaining eight per cent had registration details issues.
“For those whose payments failed, there was an ID mismatch between the number they provided for payment and the ID number registered for the phone. In some instances, workers’ phones were inactive or were not registered with M-Pesa,” Hinga said.
- mwaniki fm
