The government has been put under pressure to continue with the registration of elderly persons under the Older Persons Cash Transfer Programme despite the government having raised earlier concerns about the availability of funds to support the Inua Jamii programme.
The National Assembly Committee on Implementation on Tuesday directed the State Department of Social Protection and Senior Citizen Affairs to embark on the exercise following complaints raised in Parliament over the welfare of thousands of Kenyan aged citizens.
While issuing the directive, the chairperson of the committee, Raphael Wanjala, told Social Protection Principal Secretary Joseph Motari that though the department's kitty had not been enhanced, there was no excuse as to why registration should not continue.
"PS, this is the Committee on Implementation. Our scope revolves around ensuring House Resolutions are implemented. I want to direct that you embark on registration; then we shall invite you, together with the National Treasury, in four weeks time to review the matter," Wanjala directed.
The directive came even as the State Department raised concerns that the programme was cash-strapped after the House declined to enhance the department's kitty in the recent approval of Supplementary Estimates II for the 2024/2025 Financial Year.
The directive comes following a National Assembly resolution that adopted a motion sponsored by Kilome MP Thaddeus Nzambia, seeking the continuous and timely registration of elderly persons under the programme.
In an interesting development, the government was ordered to lower the age for the qualification for the cash transfers from the current 70 to 65.
However, PS Motari informed the Committee that policy guidelines provide for cash transfers to senior citizens who are 70 years and above and not 65, as the House had directed.
He further informed the Committee that even if that were possible, it was not possible to cover all the potential beneficiaries under this bracket due to budgetary constraints.
"Chair, funding has been a challenge. The president’s directive is that we make cash transfers before paying salaries. Unfortunately, due to budgetary challenges, I am only set to make the disbursements today, and I am doing them under the provisions of Article 223 because there’s no budget," the PS told the lawmakers.
Noting that statistics show that life expectancy in Kenya is about 66 years, the MPs, however, emphasised that it was only prudent that the State Department lower the eligible age for the programme to 65 years.
The cash transfers are currently supported by the World Bank, with the government having established an Enhanced Single Registry with sufficient mechanisms to ensure that those who exit the system are replaced by those next in line.
Meanwhile, during the discussions, Mombasa County Women Representative Zamzam Mohammed and her Trans Nzoia counterpart, Lilian Siyoi, expressed concerns over the challenges faced by potential beneficiaries with disabilities or those too old to get to registration centers.
They called on the government to make personal home visits to ensure all those who are required to be enrolled in the programme are considered.
"A good number of people with disabilities have been left out of registration on the basis that they do not have severe disabilities, which is discriminatory," observed Siyoi.
While acknowledging the profiling as discriminatory, the PS noted that the recently passed Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2023, sponsored by Senator Crystal Asige, would eliminate the profiling and onboard all the potential beneficiaries regardless of their disabilities once assented to law.
