Yet again the government has announced additional measures to support vulnerable citizens and cushion them against the vagaries of the coronavirus pandemic.
Starting this week, the elderly and poor households will receive grants from the State. To that end, the government has allocated some Sh8.5 billion to be given to the needy under the cash-transfer programme, and for good measure, it will be given every week.
Likewise, the government is rolling out a welfare package for health workers to insulate them against risks they are exposed to in their line of duty.
Put together, the government has organised some reasonable packages in recent weeks that cumulatively have the impact of lessening the burden not only on disadvantaged groups but the entire populace.
Earlier, the government waived tax for low-income earners and proposed a reduction of value added tax from 16 per cent to 14 per cent to lessen production costs and, in turn, trigger a reduction in the retail prices of goods and services.
For now, the point of discussion is cushion nets for the elderly and deprived households.
A caring society is known by the way it treats the elderly and the disadvantaged, which is why we commend the move and ask that officials consider extending the benefits to others like the physically challenged.
However, we are alive to the fact that the programme is fraught with perils. The cash-transfer programme has been in operation for several years.
But it is mired in corruption, mismanagement and wastefulness. Reports abound of how the process of identifying the deserving is always bungled.
In several instances, the local authorities have recruited non-deserving individuals to benefit from the programme while locking out those who are genuinely eligible.
The process of disbursing the cash is painfully slow and problematic and exposes the elderly to rip-offs by government officials and even by their own offspring.
Which is why the government must find a watertight process of managing the cash transfer and ensuring it reaches and benefits the targeted groups.
Strict measures are required to ring-fence and ensure proper identification and disbursement of the cash.
Even so, we have to think about the implication of the social subsidies on the economy. The government had to readjust its budget to release funds from non-priority areas to support the social relief.
It meant trade-offs with various projects shelved to free the cash. Sustaining such a budgetary regime will be painful, particularly when revenues are falling drastically.
In the circumstances, the hard-generated cash should be jealously guarded and never go to waste.
