Food subsidy scheme for poor homes a blessing for small-scale farmers

In North Eastern’s Marsabit District for instance, some women are already using the money to set up paraffin selling businesses and snack shops.

“We are encouraging them to invest the money wisely not just on food,” an official of the project who has since left the government service said.

The Nairobi initiative was based on a research commissioned by humanitarian groups that revealed post election violence related effects caused household incomes to drop by 21 per cent, the cost of water to increase by 114 per cent, oil to rise by 77 per cent and that of vegetables by 55 per cent.

The report found that economic necessity had pushed some poor families to desperate measures like commercial sex, crime, making illegal brews and engaging in child labour.

“Up to 60 per cent of families in Mathare, for example, skip meals while 30 per cent of children have been removed from school because their parents want to reduce on expenses,” said the groups in a joint statement.

The money given is based on the cost of nutritional needs for a family for a month, estimated at Sh4,400, the Sh2,200 is supposed to be a halfway subsidy.

“There are issues of sustainability. But we are doing what we are doing now towards graduating people into more sustainable activities. One of the plans is to partner with micro-finance institutions to see how they can help with small loans to beneficiaries to set up income generating businesses,” Ms Crosland-Taylor said.