Investing aid: Poor families putting State stipend to good use

Cash Transfer beneficiary Christina Arron serve her customers, under the National Safety Net Programme in her Hotel Christine on Friday, April 25th, 2015. [PHOTO/ JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD].

Akuwam Ideya, 49, emerges from her shop in Kataboi area in Turkana North, her hair covered with a grey head wrap. She tightens her kanga around her waist as she comes out of the shop beaming with a smile.

Her hands are rough and dry, an indication of her hardwork and determination to fend for her family. She ushers us inside the shop where foodstuffs and other items are arranged against the walls. In one corner of the shop is a transparent polythene paper with traditional tobacco in it. Akuwam explains that she started running the shop by selling traditional tobacco and maize flour. Her story is that of resilience.

She started family life with joy and abundance, then moved on to desperation and later, self-reliance. But through determination, she has managed to pull herself and her family out of abject poverty.

“I was born and brought up in Turkana’s Lokitaung area. I didn’t go to school because education was not valued much then. I married my sweetheart in a church wedding and we were blessed with seven children,” she recalls with nostalgia.

While she stayed at home, her husband who worked as a loader with World Food Programme (WFP) in the region, supported the family. She remembers how life was good when her family lived in Lodwar town, the headquarters of Turkana County. Then, they never imagined ever going without food.

But life took a turn for the worse when she turned 32. Her husband who suffered from tuberculosis succumbed to the disease.

“When my husband’s health deteriorated, we moved to his parents’ home in Kakuma. He died in 1998 and I was left to fend for our children. After his burial, while I was still in mourning, most of my pastoralist in-laws left the homestead in search of pasture,” she recalls.

With no shoulder to lean on, she moved to her parents’ home in Kataboi where she ventured into a small-scale dried fish business. Here, she was registered into the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP) that rolled out a cash transfer programme.

The programme, implemented by the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) under the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, is supporting poor and vulnerable households in the country’s poorest arid counties - Turkana, Mandera, Wajir and Marsabit.

This is the second phase of the programme which runs from 2014-2017. The first phase ran from 2008-2013. A total of over Sh4 billion has been disbursed so far. It aims at reducing extreme hunger by delivering cash transfers of Sh4,900 every two months. Akuwam started receiving the stipends in February last year. She will get the money until 2017.

With six installments of HSNP’s disbursements, which she used to construct permanent structures that house her shop, a butchery and two rental houses. And that has made all the difference in her life.

“I earn Sh2,000 every month from rent. I also get income from other businesses. When I stock my shop with goods worth about Sh20,000, I make over Sh5,000 profit after two months. This increases when cash transfers are disbursed since customers throng my shop to purchase foodstuffs for their families,” she says with a smile.

Akuwam has been able to educate her children and provide for their basic needs. She wants to see her children through their education, and until they find employment. Her first-born daughter, Benadette Ekai, 22, is a second-year college student in Kitale. Her other children are in primary school.

Entrepreneurial acumen

Christina Arron, 40, was not a beneficiary of the cash transfer programme, but she received the financial support by default, courtesy of her grandmother.

Arron’s elderly grandmother, who passed away five months ago, believed in her grandchild, whom she adopted in line with the Turkana culture. As she raised her, the grandmother noticed entrepreneurial acumen in the young child.

“My mother divided what she received from the programme into two. She gave one half to Christina and shared the rest to her own children,” Arron’s 70-year-old mother, Rebecca Ekal, says.

Arron, a mother of eight, says she put the small amount to good use by cooking tasty buns that she sold at the local market.

“I used each disbursement to increase my stock of goods. This has led to a rise in the number of customers,” she says, noting that the initial disbursement to her grandmother was Sh2,150, from which she received Sh1,000. The amount was later increased to Sh4,900. She has managed to open a small hotel and a shop.

“I am planning to construct a permanent structure, which will leak during the rainy season and ensure that my children get better education,” she says, noting that her elderly husband has been supportive.

She will continue receiving the stipend up to 2017 because her grandmother had listed her as one of her next-of-kin. Another beneficiary, Mary Lokirdi, 50, says she used to struggle to provide food for her children by making mats and building houses.

The single mother from Katiko village in Turkana North, says she was forced to do other odd jobs like burning charcoal to feed her children. She only got a reprieve after being included in the list of HSNP beneficiaries.

When her turn came, she received Sh24,500 from HSNP in July last year, an accumulation of five months’ disbursements.

“I decided that I would not misuse the money but start an income-generating activity to enable me feed my children and meet their other needs,” she says.

She used the money to set up a kiosk where she sells sugar, tea leaves, unga (flour), paraffin and other consumer goods.

According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) Programme Officer for Loima and Turkana Central sub-counties, Samuel Napitau, a total of 39,918 households in Turkana County are receiving the stipends.

The programme, an unconditional poverty alleviation social protection, is a Government flagship programme under the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, managed by the NDMA.

“Scaled up cash transfers will be triggered once a sub-county reaches a severe or extreme drought threshold. This is based on short rains assessment and vegetation cover index,” said Napitau.

Surviving drought

Hunger and Safety Net Programme Manager in Turkana County, Everlyne Nadio, told Wednesday Life that though Turkana North has been worst hit by drought, the locals can afford to get a meal through the programme.

She said HSNP makes electronic cash transfers to the households with activated Equity Bank accounts in its registry.

“Beneficiaries in identified sub-locations are selected from the HSNP register in wealth order and only those with activated bank accounts are able to receive the scaled-up cash transfers. The current amount of the cash transfer for every household is Sh4,900 every two months,” Nadio said.

NDMA CEO James Oduor said the programme is helping the locals to survive drought periods, adding that this is one of the interventions they are carrying out to reduce suffering among the locals as they wait for long-term development programmes.

In Namadak village, Marakal Long’ade may not have invested the money he receives from the programme, but he is grateful. The father of six says uses the money to buy food for his children: “This money has really helped me because I can buy food for my children.”

And Kiyok Lorkiyeng from Katiko village near Lake Turkana is a fisherman and a beneficiary of the regular cash transfer. When Wednesday Life caught up with him, the electronic gadget used by the Equity Bank agents did not recognise his roughened hands.

“I will take his national identity card number to the bank from where he will receive his money,” explained an agent. Lorkiyeng, a father of five, says the money has enabled him to purchase fishing nets.

In 2013, poverty in Turkana was close to 90 per cent. Oduor said other interventions include relief food from the Government and cash transfers for the elderly:

“We are working with Equity Bank to ensure agents are close to the people; we don’t want any beneficiary to be more than 20 kilometres from the payment centres.”