The government has said it intends to add 500,000 more elderly and vulnerable Kenyans gradually into the cash transfer programme from next month who have attained age 70 and above.
This was said on Monday by Joseph Motari, principal secretary of social protection and senior citizens affairs, during his visit to Kiambu town to witness that the second batch of the cash transfer programme was being released to the elderly.
Motari announced that immediately after the ministry gets the money by next month, they will get back to the field to make sure they bring on board new beneficiaries.
"We are handling elderly who are 70 years and above. These are vulnerable people, those people who cannot manage and those who do not earn a pension in whichever manner this is their pension," he said.
"There is natural attrition that is why we have over a million. This is why we intend to have 500,000 more Kenyans that we are adding," Motari said.
Motari said that the Inua Jamii cash transfer fund is Sh16.7 billion and the state has since paid Sh8 billion in the first batch whereas the second batch has started this week.
"From today henceforth, the money for the elderly will be paid monthly and will not be paying arrears as today marks the end of the arrears. We had a backlog of four cycles and now we no longer have any pending payment," Motari said.
He said that Kiambu county has 42,526 beneficiaries and more than Sh337 million has been disbursed
In the country, over 1 million beneficiaries where Sh8.3 billion has been disbursed with each beneficiary taking home Sh8,000.
The PS said that the government will change the mode of disbursing the funds where they have engaged Safaricom to be sending the money to the beneficiaries via M-Pesa.
"We do not want to disturb these old people from the comfort of their houses. We want to pay them via M-Pesa. We are in talks with M-Pesa CEO and we are still organizing the system to make sure we are paying this money through M-Pesa. From the banks we will be paying this money as our last mile to the beneficiaries from wherever they will be," Motari said.
Loise Njambi, 76 years old, who is a beneficiary hailed the government for ensuring they got their money which was in arrears in full adding that the move to be paying them monthly will go a long way to helping them meet their daily needs.
"Every month we will be getting our Sh2,000 from the government which is a good move since we are helpless and we do not earn a salary. We buy drugs and we have to fend for ourselves," Njambi said.
Another beneficiary John Kimotho, 84 years, said that the money will help the elderly to meet some of their financial needs as many have been neglected while others are sick and cannot afford to buy medicine for themselves.
