Wamuzi News Ke
As part of a substantial transformation in the country’s social security system, President William Ruto has given an executive order to the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection that directly commands to eliminate the usual bureaucratic obstacles and to put all minority and marginalized communities into the state’s cash transfer programs without delay.
This command has shocked the government’s administrative ranks, and it is aimed at undoing the historical exclusion that has systematically deprived the very remote and underserved areas of the country’s safety net.
He emphasized during the Regional Hub for Social Protection launch that the initiative was not merely a policy change but rather a moral obligation to make sure that the “Inua Jamii” program reaches even the most remote areas of the republic.
The data from the government indicates that the social protection system in Kenya has been suffering from a great “participation gap” for a long time.
The national government is providing around 1.2 million beneficiaries with a monthly grant of 2,000 Kenyan shillings, but according to internal audits, up to a third of those who are eligible in the marginalized ASAL regions do not receive the money because of lack of documentation, poor infrastructure, and being isolated by geography.
The economic effects of this new decree are major ones. By requiring the incorporation of the said segments, the National Treasury is believed to be responsible for the opening of billions of extra funds.
Present data show that elderly people (70+), orphans, and severely disabled people are the major consumers of the annual social protection budget of 26 billion shillings.
Nevertheless, the President’s new “inclusive mandate” is intended to enlarge this area of concern, targeting specifically the ethnic minorities and the hunter-gatherers who have been neglected by the census and registration officials for a long time.
Some independent analysts are of the opinion that this move is a strategic ploy to pacify the North and Coastal regions, where discontent is growing because of the high levels of poverty, which are difficult to eradicate.
Recent reports based on the poverty index indicate that more than 70 percent of people in the counties of Turkana and Marsabit are living below the poverty line, while the national average is about 36 percent. The President’s command has, in effect, called for a change of focus, and as a result, these high-poverty areas are going to be given priority in the next round of disbursement.
In addition, the president ordered that the village-level registration method be used by taking the community leaders into consideration, as they would help in identifying the “hidden poor.” This process avoids the customary requirement of complicated digital registration, which has often acted as a hindrance to people with no reliable internet access or formal identification.
The Ministry of Labour is under strict orders to give the prescribed enrollment numbers within a certain period. The President cautioned that not meeting these targets would be considered a neglect of the responsibility.
The government’s urgent push for universal social coverage has come at a time when it is under a lot of pressure to ease the high cost of living, which has hit hardest the lowest-income earners.
While the government is pushing for this enormous social coverage to be covered under a proper plan, National Treasury has to show if the budget can take the sudden increase of hundreds of thousands of new beneficiaries.
For the low-income communities of Kenya, however, this decree is the first clear sign of their financial recognition by the government.
