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Elderly, orphans get extra Sh12.5bn for monthly stipend
Elderly people follow proceedings during the launch of Inua Jamii 70 and Above Cash Transfer Programme at Mweiga stadium in Nyeri county on July 5, 2017.
Treasury has allocated an extra Sh12.5 billion to the State Department for Social Protection to be spent by the end of June, in a move to avert a possible crisis in the cash transfer to senior citizens.
In the latest budget review for the State Department, the Treasury increased its gross allocation from Sh35.3 billion to Sh47.8 billion.
“The overall change reflects an increase of Sh12.5 billion in the current expenditure on account of additional funds for the Inua Jamii (Cash Transfer) Programme,” the Treasury said in the budget review.
The decision to increase the allocation to Inua Jamii programme comes after a parliamentary committee in March warned that over 1.76 million elderly citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and other groups of vulnerable Kenyans risked missing out on the benefits due to a funding shortfall.
At the time, the National Assembly’s Labour and Social Protection Committee estimated the budget shortfall for the programme at Sh16.9 billion, which it said would affect cash transfer activities for up to four months.
“Following the presidential directive to upscale the Inua Jamii Programme, approximately 500,000 beneficiaries have been enrolled from June 2024, and thus the total number of beneficiaries has increased to 1.76 million,” the committee’s chairperson Alice Ng’ang’a said.
The committee warned that if the Sh16.9 billion funding gap is not addressed, elderly persons, orphans, vulnerable children, and PWDs depending on the cash transfer for survival would miss out from March to June 2025.
Under the cash transfer programme, the government provides registered beneficiaries with Sh2,000 monthly to support their livelihoods.
In the current fiscal year, for instance, the State Department has a target to support 1,537,781 elderly persons, 611,786 households with vulnerable children, and 82,500 households with PWDs with cash transfers.
The State Department also has a target to register 115,000 PWDs and issue them with disability cards.
Since 2013, the government has been Inua Jamii programme’s main financier and the State Department now aims to increase the number of beneficiaries to about 2.5 million by next year.
