The Kenya National Safety Net Programme (NSNP) is a government Social Protection programme established in September 2013 as part of the government’s initiatives to improve and enhance social protection delivery in the country.

The establishment of the NSNP builds on the government of Kenya’s commitment to reducing poverty, as articulated in Kenya Vision 2030.

In particular, NSNP was established to provide a common operating framework for the government’s four Cash Transfer programmes including, Persons With Severe Disabilities Cash Transfer, Older Persons Cash Transfer, Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children(CT- OVC) and the Hunger Safety Net Cash Transfer.

The NSNP cash transfers have made a profound difference in the lives of beneficiary households by improving their welfare and increasing their resilience. So far, more than 500,000 households are receiving cash transfers on a regular basis and an additional 374,806 households in Northern Kenya receive cash assistance in the case of extreme weather events.

The last three years have seen the government take the lead in the financing of NSNP with over 150,000 new households having been enrolled and financed by the government, marking a shift from the previous heavy financing by development partners such as the World Bank, DFID and UNICEF among others.

The 4 years programme was supported by the World Bank through a Programme for Results design of implementation.

The NICHE is a complementary programme   that aims to improve the nutrition status of children through a combination of interventions, i.e. , nutritional counselling, cash and child protection (positive parenting and alternative family care) in the life cycle. It targets members in the existing households of NSNP (Inua Jamii and HSNP) Cash Transfer Programmes to improve health outcomes for both women (pregnant and lactating mothers) and children up to 2 years in the participating counties. A cash transfer top-up of Kshs. 500 is provided to a household with a pregnant mother or one child who is under 2 years while a household with more than two children  under the age of 2 years or more than two pregnant mothers will qualify for Ksh.1000 per month…Read More…

The Economic Inclusion Programme was designed with an objective of enhancing access of 7500 extremely poor households to social and economic inclusion services by increasing access of households to skills, productive inputs, asset, finance and economic opportunities. The programme targets both beneficiaries of National Safety Net Programme (Inua Jamii) and non-NSNP beneficiaries.

The goal of the National Positive Programme is to prepare parents and caregivers for parenting roles and responsibilities, train them to have and sustain families for  a strong society. The parenting programme was layered on the Universal Child Benefit and NICHE programmes during the pilot stage.

The Project started in 2021 with support from UNICEF. It aimed to support families with children who had never joined school and others whose children had dropped out, to join/re-join school. It also ensures that children who go back to school continue with their studies to avoid a situation where they drop out again. The program is currently in Garissa, Kilifi, West Pokot, Isiolo Counties.

The Energy and Cash Initiative, currently referred to as Mwangaza Mashinani is an innovative pilot project aimed at ensuring that the most vulnerable populations in Kenya are not left behind in the growing solar home systems market. The project leverages upon the existing Social Cash Transfer Programme by providing a conditional cash transfer to a targeted 2,000 beneficiaries in Garissa and Kilifi counties as a top up to their existing cash transfers. The purpose of this top up is to specifically provide the opportunity for the project’s target group to access and own a solar lantern or solar home system in ways that do not distort the market, that is, the solar products are offered to the target households as customers on a regular commercial and competitive basis.

Inua Jamii Senior Citizens’ Scheme (70+)

The Inua Jamii Senior Citizens’ scheme is a taxfinanced pension-tested social pension offering universal pension coverage for all citizens of Kenya once they reach 70 years of age. The programme, implemented since 2018, marks a significant milestone for the expansion of the lifecycle approach to social protection in Kenya, since all citizens are now entitled to a minimum income guarantee in their old age. https://www.developmentpathways.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Inua-Jamii-Country-Brief-1.pdf