MPs demand for expanded elderly support as PS decries budgets constraints » Capital News

NAIROBI Kenya Apr 20 – Parliamentary Committee has directed the State Department of Social Protection and Senior Citizen Affairs to embark on a continuous and timely registration of elderly persons under the Older Persons Cash Transfer Programme.

The Committee on Implementation issued the directive even as Principal Secretary Joseph Motari revealed that the department is facing a cash crunch after the National Assembly declined to increase its budget in the Supplementary Estimates II for the 2024/2025 financial year.

“Funding has been a challenge. The President’s directive is that we make cash transfers before paying salaries. Unfortunately, due to budgetary challenges, I am only set to make the disbursements today, and I am doing them under the provisions of Article 223 because there’s no budget,” the PS told the lawmakers.

Committee Chairman Raphael Wanjala (Budalangi) noted the concern but insisted that registration must proceed as directed by the House.

“Our scope as a Committee revolves around ensuring House Resolutions are implemented. We shall invite you together with the National Treasury after four weeks to review the matter,” Wanjala directed.

The Committee is overseeing the implementation of a House resolution from a motion sponsored by Kilome MP Thaddeus Nzambia, calling for the continuous registration of elderly persons under the programme.

Motari clarified that complying with the House directive to include persons aged 65 would breach current programme policy, which begins at age 70.

The PS added that the programme supports an estimated 1,251,721 beneficiaries countrywide.

Mombasa County Woman Representative, Zamzam Mohammed, and her Trans Nzoia counterpart, Lilian Siyoi, expressed concerns over the challenges faced by potential beneficiaries with disabilities or those too old to get to registration centers.

They called on the Department to make personal home visits to ensure all those who require to be enrolled in the programme are considered.

“A good number of people with disabilities have been left out of registration on the basis that they do not have severe disabilities, which is discriminatory,” observed Siyoi.

While acknowledging the profiling as discriminatory, the PS noted that the recently passed Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2023, sponsored by Nominated Senator Crystal Asige, would eliminate the profiling and onboard all the potential beneficiaries regardless of their disabilities, once assented into law.