Kazi Mtaani has been so successful in hiring jobless young people to make the environment safer during the Covid-19 pandemic that the government will expand it to about 300,000 youths.
The National Hygiene Programme is known as Kazi Mtaani and Sh10 billion has been set aside for Phase Two.
Jerome Ochieng, PS for ICT and Innovation, said on Monday the programme had cushioned residents from the economic effects of Covid-19 and ensured improved hygiene and sanitation.
Speaking in the Obunga slums in Kisumu county, one area where the programme is being implemented, he said the government would recruit 10 times more young people in the second phase.
He was joined by Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o and county commissioner Susan Waweru.
In the first phase, more than 26,000 youths were recruited from 23 informal settlements. In the second phase about 270,000 youths will be recruited to cover most parts of the country.
Each person will be paid Sh658 per day.
The young people clean streets, collect garbage, fumigate, clear bushes and unclog drainage systems, among other tasks.
“This has helped put something in the pockets of the thousands of youth who mostly lost their jobs when the pandemic kicked in,” Ochieng said.
Crime and insecurity have declined because young men are gainfully occupied.
The pilot programme was implemented in Kisumu, Nakuru, Mombasa, Kiambu, Nairobi, Kilifi, Mandera and Kwale.
In Kisumu alone, 2,300 youths were employed.
(Edited by V. Graham)
