• The money will be paid to more than one million beneficiaries covering the months of July, August, September and October.
• Each beneficiary will receive Sh8,000.
Image: /MAGDALINE SAYA
It is early Christmas for Inua Jamii beneficiaries after the state released Sh8.7 billion for the programme.
The money, released through the Labour Ministry, will be paid to more than one million beneficiaries covering the months of July, August, September and October.
This means each beneficiary will receive Sh8,000. Funds for November and December will be released in the first week of January.
Those to benefit are beneficiaries who successfully opened bank accounts for the programmes under the consolidated cash transfer programme.
The money is expected to hit accounts from Monday. Payments will be made through Equity, Cooperative, KCB and Post banks.
Beneficiaries and caregivers will be required to produce their Inua Jamii payment cards and IDs to receive payments.
Those receiving the payment for the first time will however be required to transact biometrically.
"We have cleaned up the payroll and are sure that only genuine members are benefiting under the scheme,” Labour PS Nelson Marwa told journalists at the ministry on Friday.
So far, 15,000 dead beneficiaries have been struck off the payroll. The government is planning to re-target the funds to other beneficiaries in January.
“In the new payment model, beneficiaries and caregivers can access their funds within six months after the money is credited to their accounts,” Marwa said.
He said the new system will ensure that only genuine beneficiaries receive the stipend while weeding out bogus people to guarantee accountability and transparency.
Beneficiaries are to receive the cash through their bank accounts only.
The PS has, however, urged the beneficiaries to inculcate a culture of saving for a rainy day.
“You are allowed to either withdraw all or a portion of the amount but there is no point withdrawing the entire amount at once. By coming up with the accounts' system, we wanted to encourage the saving culture.”
Sixty thousand others are yet to open accounts.
The ministry currently implements three programmes under Inua Jamii – Older Persons Cash Transfer covering 833,000 beneficiaries, including 533,000 who are 70 years and above; Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, which covers 310,000 households; and Persons with Severe Disability Cash Transfer, which covers 47,000 households.
The first two withdrawals per payment will be free, but subsequent withdrawals are charged at a fee determined by banks.
The programme started on a pilot basis where beneficiaries used to receive as little as Sh500 per month.
Over time, the amount was reviewed upwards to Sh1,500 and gradually to the current Sh2,000 per month paid bi-monthly.