The Azimio government will rely on data from the Kenya Bureau of Statistics to select beneficiaries of the Sh6,000 monthly stipend under its ambitious social protection fund should it win the August polls.
Presidential candidate Raila Odinga said deserving households are the vulnerable living below the poverty line.
An individual in Kenya is considered to be living below the poverty line if their monthly food and non-food expenditure is Sh3,252 and Sh5,995 in rural and urban areas respectively.
Raila said the beneficiaries have already been profiled by the KNBS and found to be about 2,000 families.
This, he said, translates to about eight million people if on average a family consists four members.
“So if it’s Sh6,000 per family, we are talking about Sh12 billion per month, that works to Sh144 billion per year” Raila said.
He spoke on Tuesday night during a media engagement together with his running mate Martha Karua.
The interview was broadcast live on TV and Radio stations and streamed on social media.
The ODM leader explained that the Sh6,000 stipend is an economic stimulus package of sorts whose ripple effect will be stimulation of small businesses by increasing people's purchasing power.
"This is not a waste, it's an investment," he emphasised.
He said the funds will be sourced from sealing loopholes used to pilfer public funds through skewed procurement and other corrupt dealings during the revenue collection process.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke about Sh2 billion loss daily through corruption. President Obama also spoke about it being Sh700 billion. If you basically try to lock this, you can have a savings of Sh500 billion (and) we are talking about only Sh144 billion shillings,” Raila said.
