More than 1.76 million vulnerable Kenyans, including the elderly, persons with disabilities, and orphaned children, will continue receiving government stipends after the National Treasury injected an extra Sh12.5 billion into the Inua Jamii cash transfer programme to avert a looming funding crisis as the financial year draws to a close.

The boost comes after a parliamentary committee in March warned that the programme faced a Sh16.9 billion shortfall, risking payment delays from March to June 2025. In the latest supplementary budget review, the Treasury increased the gross allocation to the State Department for Social Protection from Sh35.3 billion to Sh47.8 billion.

“The overall change reflects an increase of Sh12.5 billion in the current expenditure on account of additional funds for the Inua Jamii (cash transfer) programme,” the National Treasury said in its report.

This is the third budget adjustment since July 2024, coming just days before the 2024/25 financial year ends on June 30, 2025.

The move to boost funding follows a warning by the National Assembly’s Labour and Social Protection Committee, which raised concerns in March that the programme could be disrupted for months due to a lack of funds.

“Following the presidential directive to upscale the Inua Jamii Programme, approximately 500,000 beneficiaries have been enrolled from June 2024, and thus the total number of beneficiaries has increased to 1.76 million,” committee chairperson Alice Ng’ang’a said. She cautioned that unless the Sh16.9 billion shortfall was addressed, thousands of elderly and vulnerable citizens would be excluded from March to June 2025.

The government currently gives each registered beneficiary a monthly stipend of Sh2,000 to support their livelihoods.

In the current financial year, the State Department for Social Protection is targeting to support 1,537,781 elderly persons, 611,786 households with vulnerable children, and 82,500 households with persons with disabilities through the cash transfer initiative.

In addition to the cash disbursements, the department also plans to register 115,000 persons with disabilities and issue them disability identification cards.

The government has been the primary funder of the Inua Jamii programme since its launch in 2013 and aims to expand the number of beneficiaries to 2.5 million by next year.