By SAMUEL SIRINGI ssiringi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, August 16 2011 at 22:00
Posted Tuesday, August 16 2011 at 22:00
IN SUMMARY
- Some 130,000 households to benefit from more cash for children
Orphans and needy children from 130,000 households are to start receiving increased government stipends starting next month.
Each of the households will receive Sh2,000 per month, up from Sh1,500, to help children access essential goods and services such as food, education and medical.
The targeted households had risen by more than 6,000, according to assistant director of the orphaned and vulnerable children programme at the Gender, Children and Social Services ministry Mary Mbuga.
“We have selected households that don’t benefit from other government programmes that provide similar subsidies,” Ms Mbuga said, adding that poor families were key targets of the programme and would be drawn from all the 47 counties.
Some of the households omitted from the programme include those that benefit from cash subsidies under the older persons scheme. Older persons covered under the scheme also receive Sh2,000 monthly.
The selected households would be those with children under the age of 18 years.
“We have had to increase the money because of increasing inflation,” Ms Mbuga said.
The cash transfer programme for needy children and orphans began in 2005.
Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta boosted the scheme in June with Sh2.8 billion.
He said the money would bring an additional 100,000 orphaned and vulnerable children into the scheme.
Recently, the government announced that more elderly people would be included in the government kitty that offers them a monthly stipend.
The programme offers a stipend of Sh1,500 to 33,000 elderly citizens but the Gender and Social Services ministry plans to expand it beyond the 33 districts covered.
Mr Kenyatta, in his June budget, increased the total allocation to the elderly citizens’ programme by Sh470 million to Sh1 billion.
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