Social protection program faces limited resources, says DP

The Government wants employers to help support social welfare programmes.

Deputy President William Ruto said the Government would push for other avenues to raise funds for the social protection programme because of limited resources.

He said the State would spend Sh25 billion this year on 1.3 million Kenyans in the welfare programme.

Among the proposals the national government plans to front through Parliament is to make employers contribute funds to cater for better universal healthcare through the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF).

Ruto said the State needed to enhance funding to facilitate better universal healthcare since the programme was facing limited funding.

“Despite the progress, we still have a challenge of limited resources to overcome. We shall make more investments to benefit our people,” said Ruto.

The DP, who launched the National Social Protection Conference at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies yesterday, said the 1.3 million Kenyans that were currently listed under the social protection programme would benefit from free NHIF cover.

Vulnerable children

The figure includes 365,000 orphans and vulnerable children, 850,000 elderly persons above 70 years, and 89,000 hunger-stricken people.

Ruto said the expansion of the programme to include more beneficiaries was 'not by chance or guesswork' but a deliberate effort to help many Kenyans in dire need.

“We still have gaps. Many Kenyans are not captured and we need to think outside the box and cast our nets wider.

“In the past four years, we spent Sh66 billion and we shall spend Sh25 billion this year alone,” said Ruto, adding: “In the next few days, the senior citizens will start receiving their stipends (Sh2,000 a month).”

The DP said the beneficiaries would be paid at the same time as civil servants to ensure the process was timely and efficient.

Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani had expressed concern about the funding crisis last week.

Growing population

The CS said the growing population would pose a challenge to social protection unless stakeholders devised alternative ways to generate funds to help the poor and vulnerable.

He also hinted at plans of entering a memorandum of understanding with county governments to ensure the social protection programme was successful.

Yesterday, Yattani said the Government was 'closer to achieving desirable standards in social protection'.