By Christopher Omondi
The Inua Jamii program is a social protection initiative by the Kenyan government aimed at providing financial support to vulnerable groups, including senior citizens, orphans, persons with disabilities, and children from extremely poor families.
For Kisumu County, the discrepancies in the Inua Jamii program are a result of inaccurate beneficiary information in terms of errors in identification details, such as ages or identification (ID) Numbers. There are also issues with payment amounts, frequency, and delivery, as expressed by the residents of Nyando.
Kisumu County implemented several initiatives to support the program, which included local committees within beneficiaries’ villages to ensure timely follow-ups and address concerns, registration, and verification of the addresses through the local authorities.
The Kenya Social and Economic Inclusion Project (KSEIP) is being implemented in Nyando to strengthen delivery systems for enhanced access to social and economic inclusion services. Despite the efforts from the County, the program is facing a series of discrepancies that the residents of Ombaka in Nyando expressed.
“The beneficiaries have reported issues with their identification details and the challenge of updating the systems when beneficiaries die, a situation that has enabled corruption in the form of ghost beneficiaries. The delays in payments due to the switch from bank deposits to mobile payments have affected the elderly, who struggle with the new system, people with disability, and orphans. I feel that we need to empower caregivers with seminars and training on caregiving. Finally, the biggest problem is corruption in the rollout and implementation, as in my case, where I gave the details of an orphan child and verified everything with the chief and the committee, and still didn’t benefit from the fund; it’s clear that many more deserving people are missing out on this program because of the poor planning and rollout. We ask the responsible committee in the County Assembly to aid in following up with the local committees within communities to get a clear picture of the Inua Jamii Program, while also following up with the State Department for Social Protection, which oversees the Inua Jamii program nationally.” Added Susan Orwa.
The national government of Kenya recently announced the release of SHS 881 million in support of the Inua Jamii for the elderly, orphans, and children from vulnerable families, a move that many supported.
“It’s good for the government to remember orphans, the elderly, and the vulnerable children, but the problem is how the money will get to us in the grassroots, since we don’t have systems that can operate independently and effectively, as many passes through many hands before getting to the people that rightfully deserve them. By the time it gets to the people it’s already stolen or less to make an impact on people and thus we should work on making the system better to enable accountability and transparency.
