The elderly, persons living with disabilities, vulnerable and the orphans in Yatta Sub-County on Thursday converged at the sub-county headquarters to register for the OVC funds.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development plans to disburse the funds to the groups next month. This is after they missed for two consecutive months following graft allegations on the disbursement process.
Addressing the potential beneficiaries, Yatta OVC funds manager Janet Karendi notified them that they were all expected to register regardless of whether they had done so in the previous exercises.
She dismissed the claims that she said have been spreading around the area that the attendance register was being used to corruptly claim the money meant for the elderly people. Karendi assured them that no money was being lost and the register was just for official use to identify those in attendance.
The official warned the groups of some deceitful people posing as ministry's officials, who according to her, were going round the estates demanding money for registering those in need. She told them that the registration was free and should always be done through their selected representatives only.
She notified them that under the new rules, to qualify for the monthly stipend from the government under the cash transfer programme, one had to be aged 65 years and above, have a second Generation ID Card, must be living in utter poverty, must have lived in their current residence for at least one year, should not be earning any money under the government's pension scheme or have grown up kids who are financially able to take care of their aging parents.
For the case of the persons living in disability, the government was only catering for those with severe disability. She added that registration was not final. The ministry officials would then visit the homes of those who had been shortlisted, in order to assess and verify the genuine cases.
She warned that anyone found to have registered for more than one programme would lose out on the benefits. She said that double registration was an offense and could lead one to be aligned in court for fraud.