Thousands of Isiolo County residents have benefited from the government’s cash transfer program aimed at lessening suffering caused by drought in the area.
Consequently, long queues of beneficiaries are being witnessed at the designated pay points, and those missing from the beneficiaries’ registers are referred to the local office of the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) to confirm if they were captured in the recipients’ list.
The genuine beneficiaries of the government’s project, which is referred to as the ‘Hunger Safety Network’ were identified through the national drought agency, following which only the less fortunate in society were considered.
NDMA County Coordinator Mr. Omar Abdi said the residents had for a week now been flocking his office in hundreds in a bid to verify if they were beneficiaries of the funds from the authority as promised when the programme started last year.
Mr. Abdi assured the residents that the money would be disbursed to everyone who was enlisted to benefit,
adding that those who missed out on the first lot of beneficiaries would be paid in the second phase.
He urged the area residents to be calm as the authority finalises the verification and expands the number of beneficiaries registered.
He added that the beneficiaries of the programme were divided into two groups depending on the level of vulnerability.
‘There are two groups; the first one has 7,000 families registered, each receiving Sh2,700 per month, and if the drought persists, the amount would be increased to Sh3700 so as to sustain themselves,’ Abdi said.
‘The second group of beneficiaries has 43,000 families who NDMA had already assisted to open bank accounts at Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), which we partner with on such drought-resilient projects,’ he added.
Mr. Abdi said the second group of 24,802 families had already received the funds in January this year, and the remaining beneficiaries are set to receive theirs in the course of the year.
He, however, revealed that there is a challenge with t
he elderly population, whose fingerprints could not be detected by the biometric kits, yet they have money in their bank accounts.
‘There are residents who did not show up to register and open bank accounts, but when they heard that funds were being issued, they came knocking at our offices, and this has brought a lot of confusion,’ Abdi said.
He noted that after realising that the number of people with fingerprint issues was higher than expected, the authority came up with a plan to tour the county to address it at the grassroots.
‘We have rolled out a timetable for touring the county to ensure residents are verified in their respective villages,’ the coordinator said.
He said the bank and NDMA officers will visit each location to carry out the verification exercise.
The team of officials are scheduled to conduct the verification exercise at chiefs’ offices in Isiolo East, Tulluroba, Waso, Central, Burat, Kiwanjani, Makaburi, Kambi Juu, Central, Ngaremara, and Shambani.
Source : Kenya News Agency