The Principal Secretary (PS) in the State Department of Housing and Urban Development Charles Hinga has assured Kenyans that the Ksh 10 billion rolled out by President Uhuru Kenyatta for the Kazi Mtaani Initiative, will not be misused.
Hinga was responding to a netizen who alleged that the funds, just like those for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, would be embezzled by powerful government officials.
The netizen, Joshua Njenga stated; "If you are shocked by Coronavirus billionaires, wait until you hear the story of Kazi Mtaani billionaires. They are the same people but they have different names for their billions."
His comment attracted the Principal Secretary's attention, who bet on his life and declared that the funds would not be stolen under his watch.
"On this one, it won’t happen. If you find any, I’m ready to be hanged at Uhuru Park in broad daylight," he declared.
Further, he noted that the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) had already been invited to investigate allegations of chiefs extorting money from the youth.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke on Thursday, Hinga disclosed why a section of the Kazi Mtaani Youth had not been paid in the first cohort, a situation that had caused protests in various parts of the country.
"The 6,000 are from 22 counties. The first cohort was paid about two weeks ago with the program having over 283,000. The rest were paid today," he explained.
From the second batch, 4,158 youth were paid a total of Ksh12,473,905 but Hinga noted that 30% of the 6,000 would have to wait longer to receive their payment due to several inaccuracies in the information they provided.
A total of 1,527 of the youth, Hinga said, had inactive lines with the PS advising them to visit mobile service providers near them for instructions on how to activate them.
531 others missed out after their National ID details failed to match with the line registration details, while 34 had not registered their lines on money transfer services.
