According to the Business Daily, the Ministry of Labour is eyeing part of the Sh257 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance the monthly stipend.
Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui told the National Assembly’s Labour Committee that they are negotiating with the Treasury on the amount to be disbursed to the ministry to cushion workers who were rendered jobless in the disease-infected areas (Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru, Kajiado and Machakos).
“This money is coming to the national basket treasury, we are making a case for our ministry to be considered in terms of funding.
“I may not be able to state how much because our team is still working on the numbers but we will be able to make our case on exactly how much we will need to cushion the people affected in the five lockdown counties and by extension, those other counties that are connected to the five counties,” CS Chelgui said.
The CS emphasised the importance of offering direct assistance to the affected Kenyans before considering other long-term measures to improve the economy. He warned that workers who were earning a living but are now jobless could easily turn to crime to make ends meet.
“The first thing is to identify those people and offer them some safety nets or mitigation measures and then deal with the larger economic problem,” said Chelugui.
“The ministry is on top of things in the sense that as we get information on those that have lost employment, we are putting together those numbers and giving the same information to Treasury and the funding will come to us,” he added.
source http://nairobiwire.com/2021/04/govt-planning-to-use-imf-loan-to-pay-monthly-stipend-to-jobless-kenyans.html
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