The government has defended the move to have the elderly in the society receive monthly Inua Jamii stipends through mobile money.

In a statement on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, Government Spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said the move was aimed at curbing fraud as earlier witnessed through banks.

“President William Ruto recently directed that payment of Inua Jamii Programme stipends be done through mobile money, going forward. This decision was well thought out, given the fraud cases that marred the disbursement of the funds through banks, as originally planned. All one needs now is a mobile money-enabled sim-card to access the Kshs.2, 000 monthly stipend,” Mwaura stated.

Mwaura says the funds have benefitted about 1.7 million beneficiaries, including elderly citizens over 70, the severely disabled, and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs).

“Since, February 11,2025 when the January, 2025 payment begun, about 1.4 million beneficiaries have already accessed their funds, through mobile transfer. We are aware that some beneficiaries do not own handsets, but all they need is a sim-card and an identity card while visiting a Mobile-money agent near them, and they will be assisted,” he added.

“Following this directive, Safaricom has also allowed for this demographic to access sim-cards, as a way of ensuring all beneficiaries get their share of the fund. The same services can be accessed on the e-citizen platform. Here beneficiaries just dial 2223# and follow prompts, that are easy and available in both English and Kiswahili.”

Mwaura says with mobile money, the government intends to cut down on the long distances the beneficiaries have had to travel, which sometimes means that they spend almost everything and just a handful is left for their upkeep.

Currently, the disbursements that now stand at Ksh3.52 billion, with Mwaura saying the government wants to increase the funds to Ksh15 billion over three years to June 2027.

“The ongoing registration drive for new beneficiaries will see the 1.7 million beneficiaries grow, to a projected 2.5 million by 2027. This disbursement has always been done promptly and way ahead of the payments of salaries to civil servants. This trend is expected to continue to afford the beneficiaries a meaningful and descent livelihood,” he added

“Mobile-money has proliferated the country in the recent years, with the current M-Pesa reach, standing at 34million subscribers, in addition to other mobile-money platforms.”

STATEMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON, HON. SEN. (DR.) ISAAC MWAURA, CBS, DELIVERED AT KICC TOWER ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2025, AT 10:00 AM. pic.twitter.com/XcUuLBjR00

— Spokesperson GoK (@SpokespersonGoK) February 25, 2025