Kazi Mtaani takes a break as youths decry delays in pay

Kazi Mtaani programme is set to take a break to allow the closure of the current financial year ending June 30.

The  State Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday announced that new direction would be given on the way forward in the coming days.

“The programme will take a pause at the end of the current Cohort’s work to allow for closure of the financial year-end of June. A new direction will be given on the way forward in the coming days. I take this opportunity to thank you all for being part of this program,” said Housing PS, Charles Hinga.

At the same time, over 280,000 Youths from across 47 counties are expected  to get their unpaid Kazi Mtaani payment by  Monday.

Hinga confirmed that the Treasury had released a budget for the payment.

“ I now confirm we have received a budget from Treasury and the process of paying the April arrears is underway and we expect to settle this by end of the month. The budget for the works completed last week will be made available very soon,” he said.

PS Hinga disclosed that it was difficult to explain the cause of the delay without having a concrete response to the many youths across the 47 who had protested over the delay.

“To all Kazi Mtaani Youths, I sincerely apologize for the delayed payment and thank you for exercising patience. It was difficult to come back to you without a concrete way forward,” he said.

Many youths have raised concerns that the delay had made it worse for them to meet their basic needs and way of livelihood.

The same delay happened in March to all Cohort A Kazi Mtaani youths but was paid after a day.

The National Treasury in February allocated an additional Sh7 billion for the Kazi Mtaani programme to pay thousands of youth and scale up the initiative to cover the affordable housing project.

The same delay happened in March to all Cohort A Kazi Mtaani youths but was paid after a day.

The National Treasury in February allocated an additional Sh7 billion for the Kazi Mtaani programme to pay thousands of youth and scale up the initiative to cover the affordable housing project.

This was after the Government extended the programme.

The supplementary budget that was tabled in Parliament highlighted that Sh1 billion will be used to pay youths who have gone without pay or received partial payments since last year.

“Sh1 billion is for the budget shortfall for the Kazi Mtaani programme for payment of youth engaged in the programme and “Sh6 billion for consolidation of Kazi Mtaani programme under the State Department for Housing and Urban Development,”  read the budget in part.

The youths heaved a sigh of relief after the national government extended the programme in March.

This was after beneficiaries across the country pleaded for an extension and President Uhuru Kenyatta intervened.

The Kazi Mtaani programme employs 283,210 youths as workers and supervisors countrywide for 11 days every month earns Sh455 daily while supervisors take home Sh505 each per day, according to the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Payment is via M-Pesa only after Safaricom waived the recovery of Fuliza loans to save indebted youths from the automatic recovery of loans from the earnings.