Payment to youths working under the Kazi Mtaani initiative will not be delayed, the government has said.
The State Department of Housing and Urban Development in a statement denied that those working in the programme are underpaid.
The clarification comes days after claims that the initiative’s first cohort of workers in Uasin Gishu county had received less pay than they expected.
“We would like to confirm that in the last few days, the programme has been making payments to Cohort 1 workers for the first week of work covered between 13th and 17th July 2020,” the statement by PS Charles Hinga said.
In the county where activities began on the July 15, the department says that payments were processed for the three days of work between July 15 and 17.
“We would like to confirm that Kazi Mtaani youths who worked three days should have received a total of Sh 1,365 while those who worked two days were paid a total of Sh910,” the department says.
On the alleged delay in payments, the government says that some workers submitted telephone numbers that were not registered with M-Pesa. Others provided numbers that did not match with the ID numbers used in registration.
The department says it is aware of a number of workers whose payments have not gone through due to problems with their phone lines.
“In such instances, affected workers are required to fill in identity forms for payments to be effected through alternative numbers that they have presented,” the statement said.
Workers get paid for the days they report to work at a rate of Sh455 per day for workers and Sh505 for supervisors.
Partnering with government agencies, the National Hygiene Programme has been running across 47 counties in over 1,000 settlements. It launched activities in Phase II in the week of July 13.
A total of 283,210 workers were divided into two cohorts working a shift of 11 days each within one month.
Starting Thursday, the state says, Cohort 1 workers will start receiving the final payments for the remaining six days of work covered between July 20 and 27.
The programme is part of the Sh56.6 billion economic stimulus package rolled out by President Uhuru Kenyatta on May 23.
Edited by Henry Makori
