On 4 May 2020, the State Department of Housing and Urban Development launched the Kazi Mtaani National Hygiene Programme, a job creation initiative aimed at integrating jobless Kenyans in urban hygiene and sanitation works across 23 informal settlements.
The programme, which is an extended public works project, aims to utilize labour-intensive approaches to create sustainability in the urban development sector. It provides opportunities for citizens above the age of 18 of all genders, provided they reside in the target informal settlements.
Under the programme, enlisted workers will earn a daily wage and undertake duties such as access paths and 'street' cleaning, fumigation and disinfection, garbage collection, bush clearance, and drainage unclogging services, among others.
State Department of Housing and Urban Development principal secretary Charles Hinga said the National Hygiene Program (NHP) initiative is an extended public works project aimed at providing employment and daily wages for low-income workers living in informal settlements while improving urban infrastructure and service delivery within informal settlements.
“The Kazi Mtaani NHP has been conceptualized to provide social relief by providing jobs and facilitating hygiene interventions to help contain the Covid-19 pandemic in informal urban settlements,” Hinga said, adding that “Phase 1 of the NHP program will deliver wages amounting to more than 30,000 informal settlement dwellers for the next one month, allowing them to meet their economic needs.
The programme will benefit informal settlements in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu, Nakuru, Kisumu, Kilifi, Kwale, and Mandera counties, which have seen the first instances of COVID-19 and have been affected by the cessation of movement policy initiated to contain the spread of the virus.
