GOOD NEWS AS GOVT PROMISES MASSIVE PAYOUT TO YOUTHS.

Workers in Cohort A of the Kazi Mtaani programme will receive their latest payment on Wednesday.

This is according to the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.

On Tuesday, PS Charles Hinga apologized for the delays.

“To all Cohort A Kazi Mtaani youths, your payment is being processed, should be paid latest tomorrow. Once again apologies for the delay in payment,” he said.

When reached for comment, Hinga told the Star that the funds had delayed for only two days due to administrative issues.

“Since it’s a new phase there were few administrative issues delays but all has been sorted now,” he said.

The National Treasury last month allocated an additional Sh7 billion for the Kazi Mtaani programme to pay thousands of youth and scale up the initiative to cover the affordable housing project.

This was after the Government extended the programme.

The supplementary budget that was tabled in Parliament highlighted that Sh1 billion will be used to pay youths who have gone without pay or received partial payments since last year.

“Sh1 billion is for the budget shortfall for Kazi Mtaani programme for payment of youth engaged in the programme and “Sh6 billion for consolidation of Kazi Mtaani programme under the State Department for Housing and Urban Development,” read the budget in part.

More than 280,000 youths heaved a sigh of relief after the national government extended the programme early this month.

This was after beneficiaries across the country pleaded for an extension and President Uhuru Kenyatta intervened.

Many youths had decried their lives being at stake if it came to an end as they had solely been relying on it to support themselves and their families, hence ending it will put them out of work.

Some noted that the programme had kept them away from the indulgence of criminal activities and drugs.

The Kazi Mtaani programme employs 283,210 youths as workers and supervisors countrywide for 11 days every month earns Sh455 daily while supervisors take home Sh505 each per day, according to the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Payment is via M-Pesa only after Safaricom waived the recovery of Fuliza loans to save indebted youths from the automatic recovery of loans from the earnings.

According to Hinga, the M-Pesa payments ensure transparency and accountability.

In the wake of Covid-19, Kazi Mtaani has kept the 18-35 age category youths across the country engaged in access roads construction, clearing of drainages, tree planting and garbage collection in their localities.

Phase one of the programme was rolled out by President Uhuru Kenyatta on April 25 as an economic stimulus to mitigate the adverse effects of Covid-19 in the informal settlements.

Phase Two was launched in July with the focus on sustainable work in public spaces like schools, libraries, toilets, footpaths, painting and paving roads with cobblestones.

The PS also noted that the programme has had big progress from July last year when it was rocked by numerous complaints of delayed payments, sometimes caused by a mismatch of details provided by workers.

Source: The Star