The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has pledged to settle payments owed to youth across the country who participated in the Kazi Mtaani programme by the end of the month.
Principal Secretary Charles Hinga said the Treasury had already released a budget for the Kazi Mtaani initiative.
“I now confirm we have received a budget from Treasury and the process of paying the April arrears is underway and we expect to settle this by end month. The budget for the works completed last week will be made available very soon,” he said.
Expressing gratitude for patience, Hinga apologised for the delay in payment.
He noted that the Kazi Mtaani programme will be temporarily suspended at the end of June for fresh directions to allow for closure of the financial year.
According to him, a new direction will be given on the way forward in the coming days.
Many youths have raised concerns that the delay had made it worse for them to meet their basic needs and way of livelihood.
The National Treasury in February allocated an additional Sh7 billion for the Kazi Mtaani programme to pay thousands of youth and scale up the initiative to cover the affordable housing project.
The Kazi Mtaani programme employs 283,210 youths as workers and supervisors countrywide for 11 days every month earns Sh455 daily while supervisors take home Sh505 each per day, according to the State Department of Housing and Urban Development.