Poor, vulnerable Kenyans set to benefit from new initiative

Public Service and Gender Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

All poor households will be listed in a register to enable the government to identify those who are eligible for benefits under the social protection programmes.

The State Department of Social Protection, under the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs and Special Programmes, is already developing a data bank, with the first phase of data collection in at least 15 counties set to start in April.

The creation of the first-ever social registry of poor households, according to a Project Performance Status Report seen by The Standard, follows last month’s successful pilot in Vihiga, Makueni, Kisumu and Taita Taveta counties.

The data in the register will form the first-ever Enhanced Single Registry (ESR) for social protection programmes that will help to identify individuals and households to benefit from Inua Jamii, Universal Health Coverage and nutritional programmes, among others.

The programme is covered under the Sh153 billion Kenya Social Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP), a five-year World Bank-funded project that aims at strengthening delivery systems for enhanced access to social and economic inclusion services and shock-responsive safety nets for poor and vulnerable households.

Currently, 1.2 million poor and vulnerable people are benefiting from the Inua Jamii Programme through several cash transfer programmes.

The first phase of listing the poor and vulnerable will target Migori, Muranga, Kakamega, Kajiado, Laikipia, Kilifi, Kitui, Kwale, Kisii, Narok, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Baringo, West Pokot, Lamu and Mombasa counties while the remaining counties will be covered under the next phase.

The data on the poor and vulnerable individuals and households will be key in the government’s planning of its social protection programmes.

Woman ferrying water at Mukuru Kwa Reuben slum, in Nairobi, 2021. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

The Kenya Social Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) also aims at strengthening delivery systems for enhanced access to social and economic inclusion services and shock-responsive safety nets for poor and vulnerable households.

“The ESR will cover up to 50 per cent of all Kenya households that can be identified as potential beneficiaries of social protection or other poverty-targeted interventions,” the Project Performance Status Report says.

It adds: “It will increase efficiency in the administration of social protection programmes in line with the National Social Protection Policy and the Vision 2030, by consolidating information from the different management information systems (MIS) for the cash transfer programmes currently operated independently by different departments and ministries.”

KSEIP will complement and build on the government’s flagship, National Safety Net Programme (NSNP), which brings together the country’s four main cash transfer programmes focused on older persons, persons with severe disability, Orphans and Vulnerable Children and households subject to recurrent shocks due to drought under one operational framework, commonly known as Inua Jamii.

Safety interventions

Recently, Public Service and Gender Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia said the government will continue to put a heavy premium on addressing the plight of the needy through the mounting of various safety interventions to cushion them from extreme poverty.

Prof Kobia spoke while releasing Sh8.5 billion for payment to beneficiaries enrolled in the Inua Jamii programme, which supports the most vulnerable members of the community by providing them with a stipend to cushion them from poverty and hunger.

Kobia also released Sh13 million as a top-up payment to 339,151 people enrolled under the Nutrition Improvements through Cash and Health Education (NICHE), a programme that aims at promoting nutrition. 

NICHE targets households with children under two years and pregnant or lactating mothers, who are already enrolled in the Inua Jamii Programme.

Kobia also released Sh400 million to vulnerable students under the Presidential Bursary Programme last month, implemented under the ministry.