Beneficiaries of the Kazi Mtaani programme have received a major boost after the govt approved their appeal for an extension of the initiative.

The steering committee of the National Hygiene Programme(Kazi Mtaani) has extended the exercise which was set to end today, March 4, 2021, by another month.

“The President promised two weeks ago that Kazi Mtaani will be extended following an appeal by the youth,” State Department of Housing and Urban Development PS Charles Hinga said in a statement.

The PS explained workers under the program operate on two shifts of Cohort A and B, each working for 11 days a month. Each worker earns Ksh455 per day while the supervisors earn Ksh505 per day.

In the last week of February, the govt disbursed Ksh679.5 million to 137,157 workers under Cohort ‘A’.

“Cohort A Kazi Mtaani payment done and dusted with 99,95 per cent success rate. Over Sh670 million circulating in about 1,160 informal settlements countrywide has seen over 137,000 youths facilitated,” said the PS.

Cohort ‘A’ workers resumed duty on February 3 after the govt in January extended the programme by one month until March 4.

Hinga had said after the end of the programme in March, some of the workers would transition to projects of a more permanent nature run by other state departments and agencies.

Unveiled in July 2020 to cushion Kenyan youth against the effects of COVID-19, Kazi Mtaani programme employs 280,000 young people in 900 informal settlements across the 47 counties.