The Inua Jamii Cash Transfer Programme paid out sh68,864,000 to 34,432, Older Persons Cash Transfer (OPCT), Orphans Vulnerable Children (OVCs), and People with Severe Disabilities (PWSD) in Kericho County in the month of June this year.

The Kericho County Coordinator for Social Development Officer, Mr. Patrick Mmbano, speaking during the National Government Development – County Implementation Coordination and Management Committee, which was chaired by Kericho County Commissioner Mr. Gilbert Kitiyo in his boardroom yesterday, said that a total of 34,432 persons received their monthly Cash Transfer of sh2000 in the month of June alone.

Mr. Mmbano said that 24,731 were under the Older Persons Cash Transfer (OPCT), 8,503 were Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), and 1,198 Persons with Severe Disabilities (PWSD).

He added that in the month of May, a total of sh 62,458,00 was paid out to 31,229 persons under the Inua Jamii Cash Transfer Programme in the County. They included 24,731, OPCT, 5534, ovc-CT, and 96
4 PWSD.

The County Children Officer, Mr. Daniel Kiba, told the meeting that the Cash Transfer for Older Persons and the Vulnerable Children (CT-OVC) programme is a government initiative that supports extremely poor households taking care of orphans and vulnerable children by giving them monthly cash benefits to cushion them from the effects of poverty.

During the meeting, which was attended by all County heads of departments, Mr. Kitiyo noted that cases of reported child pregnancies and defilements were on the rise in the county. The CC challenged elders and opinion leaders in the county to look into ways of eradicating the vice that is threatening to eat into the gains made by the government in educating and protecting the girl child, orphans, and the vulnerable children in the society.

On service delivery, the CC commended the good work the national government officers were doing while urging them to adopt one government approach in delivering essential key government services to Wananchi.

Mr. Kitiyo at
the same time sounded an alarm on the recent reported cases of meat from dying animals finding their way to markets, schools, and institutions of learning in Kericho and neighbouring counties.

He urged the officers to be vigilant, especially the agriculture and veterinary departments, to assist the authorities and the police by volunteering information in a bid to arrest the suspect and prosecute them.

He said a Tuktuk motorcycle was arrested at Kipsitet along the Kericho Kisumu highway transporting a dead cow, which was suspected to have been on transport to butchery.

The CC told the officers to report cases of grabbing of government land in Kericho by unscrupulous individuals to his office, noting that the government would soon run out of land to expand its facilities if action to protect government land was not nibbed in the bud.

Mr. Kitiyo reminded the officers to update all government assets, including moveable assets, and ensure that office inventories were updated.

Source: Kenya News Agency