NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep – The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development has signed an agreement with the Kenya Postal Corporation to disburse Sh590 million nationally to poor and vulnerable people over 65 years of age.
Assistant Minister Atanus Keya said on Friday that the program would target 33,000 people enrolled under the older persons cash transfer programme.
He said that this was part of the ministry\’s interventions to provide social protection interventions to the poor and vulnerable individuals to enable them lead dignified lives.
"The ministry has just entered into an agreement with the Postal Corporation of Kenya to disburse moneys to the elderly people which is one of the social protection functions of the ministry of Gender Children and Social Development," Mr Keya stated.
Permanent Secretary James Nyikal on his part pointed out that the use of postal services would reach many people nationally and saves on manpower.
"Before we were doing it by hand and that is very serious due to insecurity, people being attacked or pretending that they have been attacked or disappearing," he said.
"These are some of the possibilities but this programme is part of larger social protection activities, like the orphans and vulnerable children and the people with disabilities," he added.
Post Master General Major General Retired Ali Hussein expressed the Corporation\’s commitment to guarantee effective and efficient services to the beneficiaries of this program.
"We will continue to do the disbursement of finances like we do with the other projects that we have in place and to assure you that we will conduct this with the seriousness that it deserves," he said.
"Reaching 33,000 homesteads for the elderly in addition to the other projects that we have in place is obviously one that needs to be handled with nimble fingers and I think we are capable of doing that," he assured.
Other similar programmes include The Orphans\’ and vulnerable children (OVC) that targets 115,500 households and has a budget of shs835 million this financial year.
Its aim is to improve the quality of life of orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya through promoting their access to essential services such those related to education, food and nutrition, psychosocial support, child protection, and income generation.
The government and other stakeholders came up with several interventions to address the problem of OVC but this has remained inadequate in the face of the increasing number of OVC.
A rapid assessment, analysis and action planning process (RAAAPP) conducted in 2004 identified the need to urgently develop a National Plan of Action (NPA) to address the needs of OVC and to guide OVC interventions in the country.
The process of developing the NPA began in 2005 and it seeks among other things to outline the minimum package for OVC support.
Although the original document was a 5 years programme, this edition covers 3 years within which the costing is done.
The Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) on the other hand has been with allocated shs400 million for this financial year while the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) was allocated Sh200 million this financial year.
The well targeted Urban Food Subsidy is yet to be inaugurated.
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