Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong has supported ODM leader Raila Odinga's pledge to give Sh6,000 to poor households if he wins the 2022 presidential race.
Ojaamong on Sunday said millions of Kenyans are still struggling to meet their daily needs and the Sh6,000 will boost their purchasing power.
The money, the governor said, will likely be spent on buying locally made goods. This, he said, will boost local industrial productivity and the country’s general economic growth.
“As the 2022 presidential campaigns take shape, youth poverty and vulnerability pose a significant risk. In spite of numerous strategies adopted in the past, I will support the Sh6,000 for every unemployed person in our communities,” Ojaamong said in his weekly press statement.
“This intervention is likely to improve the purchasing power of our rural people, whether or not they live below the poverty line. Such a scheme can be redesigned and localised in food production.”
Raila on October 13, said the programme, if successfully rolled out, would benefit at least two million poor households.
The ODM party leader said the programme will integrate the present social protection programmes, including Inua Jamii, which consumes Sh37 billion annually.
Raila said he would push for an addition of Sh100 billion to expand the programme to benefit the poorest of the poor in Kenya.
“And nobody should lie to Kenyans that taxes would have to rise for this to be realised,” the ODM chief said.
Ojaamong said not all the youth in the country are entrepreneurs or wealth creators.
The county chief said the youth and poor Kenyans should be the first beneficiaries of the monthly stipend.
“It is important for the new administration in 2022 to re-think employment policies such as job guarantee schemes for youth who cannot be engaged in trade. India offers a good model,” Ojaamong said.
“The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is a job guarantee scheme enacted by legislation.”
“This scheme provides a legal guarantee for at least 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do unskilled manual work at the statutory minimum wage. If they fail to do so, the government then has a duty to pay the salary at home, hence the Sh6,000.”
The stipend initiative has received support and opposition in equal measure.
Among those criticising the programme is Jimi Wanjigi, an ODM member who has declared interest in the presidency in 2022.
On October 17, he said the initiative if rolled out will need Sh300 billion every year.
He said it would be unfair for the government to give out Sh300 billion it collects in taxes from hard-working Kenyans to people he described as non-working Kenyans.
Edited by A.N
