The government wants to enhance nutrition in children aged 0-3 years by providing Sh800 once every two months for a year.
The project, Universal Child Benefit, will be piloted in Kajiado, Kisumu and Embu counties.
Specific areas to benefit include Iladamat in Kajiado Central, Kajiado Township, Riandu, Nthawa, Gitiburi, Thura, Kachogo and Kakola.
According to the assistant director for children services in the National Social Protection Unit Peter Ombasa the counties selected have more children under three.
Ombasa said the programme seeks to improve multiple children’s outcomes in terms of nutrition, health and education.
“We want households to be shock responsive by increasing resilience and offering a platform to deliver emergency cash when needed,” Ombasa said.
He added that the programme followed a high-level meeting at Treasury to present the UCB concept in July 2021 and reflect on takeaways.
The government will spend Sh80 million and around 8,300 children are set to benefit from the cash transfer programme.
The procedure for application will involve parents to the children and their linkage to a household or caregiver, preferably female.
“The registration conducted involved 8,264 children under the age of 3 (linked to 7,636 caregivers) who were registered,” Ombasa said.
Two payment cycles have already been delivered while the third cycle is ongoing.
The senior programme officer in the same department Richard Obiga highlighted the procedure to be followed by parents in order to be eligible for UCB.
The first requirement is for the child to be between 0-36 months at the time of registration and be a Kenyan citizen.
Officers will clarify this by checking the caregiver’s identification, birth certificate of the child or foster care certificate.
“Children must be members of a household; the caregiver must be a resident of the locations identified for the pilot for a minimum period of 12 months,” Obiga said.
He further noted that the pilot programme is universal and does not specifically target vulnerable families.
Obiga clarified that in case the family is already benefitting from another existing cash transfer programme and they qualify for UCB then they’ll still be part of it.
“A child must belong to one household and to one caregiver; a caregiver may have more than one child and a household may have more than one caregiver,” he said.
In the case where a family is headed by a child then they should have a caregiver with proper documentation and community verification will also be required.
UCB is a partnership between Unicef, Save the Child organisation and World Food Programme.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)
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