NAIROBI – Lawmakers are gathering behind the proposed social protection bill, 2025, calling for a significant increase in cash transfer allocations to cushion the country’s most vulnerable groups from inflation and rising cost of living.
While expressing support for the broader scope of the bill, MPs have flagged serious corruption and inefficiency in the current system, calling for reforms that benefit the right people.
The bill, hosted by majority party leader Kimani Ichinwa, seeks to expand the social safety net to include individuals affected by extreme poverty and socioeconomic shocks such as pandemics and droughts.
Under the proposal, a Social Protection Commission was established to oversee eligibility and spending, providing an appeal mechanism for those excluded.
Lawmakers across political disparities welcomed the bill, but said they need to do more, especially by increasing the amount of cash transfers of SH2,000, which has not changed over the years.
Suna West MP Peter Masara criticized the stagnation of the support fund, noting that the amount does not reflect the country’s economic reality.
“In Kenya today, the vulnerable people in society are benefiting, but when the programme started, they were given SH2,000. For a while, the dollar has been at SH160, but these people are still given SH2,000,” Masala said.
Endebess MP Robert Pukose welcomed the bill’s provisions to create a formal appeal process for those who have been unfairly excluded from the cash transfer program, and noted that it restores the fairness and dignity of seniors and other vulnerable groups.
“We see that some older people have 70 people who have money, some 75-year-olds have no money, and some have no way to appeal.
Concerns about corruption within the distribution process were raised by Samble East Rep. Jackson Lekmontea. Jackson Lechmontea described the extreme and degrading measures some citizens received to verify their identity and receive legitimate funds.
“There’s a lot of corruption in this fund that people are even told to give something so you can get money. And the government should have another way of identifying these people in the event that their fingerprints fail because people who have never taken alcohol are told to take alcohol, so they’ve taken fingerprints, so they’ve taken fingerprints,” Lekmonthea said.
North Imenti MP Rahim Dawood focused on the logistics challenges faced by beneficiaries, particularly the lack of decentralized access to cash transfers.
“There’s no transparency in the number of people getting this money, and we need to know how to delegate this process. They can’t say that the entire constituency comes in one place to collect money. We need to streamline the way these people get their money,” Dawood emphasized.
Tom Odege of Nyatike MP highlighted the discrepancies in beneficiary registration and called for automatic registration to allow individuals to meet eligibility criteria, ensure fairness and eliminate favors.
“Another area of concern that we want to make very clear to us is the standard of registration: if we are in today’s constituency, we find people over the age of 70 who are not benefiting and question why their neighbors are benefiting and not listed.
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Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi accused officials of siphoning money intended for vulnerable citizens, urging the government to seal off loopholes that would allow such theft, and took a harsh stance on accountability.
“From my own observation, this money given to cash transfers is part of the corruption of this country, and the money has not been transferred properly.
Social Protection Bill, 2025, is currently reading the second time in Congress. If passed, the proposed board will strengthen veterinary eligibility based on income, health, disability and dependency levels, and provide legal measures to distressed individuals through the appeal mechanism and the High Court.
