‘Inua Jamii’ audit to weed out cheats

The welfare kitty targeting one million Kenyans is set to undergo an audit review to weed out dead and unscrupulous beneficiaries.

Social Services PS Nelson Marwa said the August 4-17 audit will solve the puzzle of 10,917 registered beneficiaries who were paid Sh113 million in stipends last March but failed to show up to collect Sh87.3 million for the March-April and May-June cycles.

“The validation exercise will address the 10,917 exceptions from the March-June 2019 payroll, identify ineligible and deceased beneficiaries to exit them,” he told county programme coordinators in Nairobi yesterday.

The Inua Jamii programme is targeting 1,233,129 people — 833,129 orphans and vulnerable children, 353,000 senior citizens above 70 years and 47,000 persons living with severe disabilities — has disbursed Sh125.7 billion since inception.

The beneficiaries now receive stipends via banks where they appear in person as opposed to the initial card-based system that allowed programme co-ordinators to pay out cash to beneficiaries.

Mr Marwa said the validation exercise would scrutinise beneficiaries afresh with those enrolled on the platform brought on the accounts-based platform currently run by Co-op Bank, Equity Bank, KCB and Postbank.