Kenyan youths who won the MbeleNaBiz promotion by the government have been waiting for close to half a year to receive their money. While the government promised them immediate disbursement, many are still waiting for the money which was their only capital, of course, besides Capital FM.
It is now turning out the delay has not been caused by the government, but the MbeleNaBiz awardees themselves.
The government had asked them to send the money to cover for the withdrawal charges, and most of them have not responded yet. This has made it difficult for the money to be disbursed since everyone knows that the elephant in the room is ‘pesa ya kutoa.’
“The problem is not that the money has been eaten or the government is buying time to get the money to refund.” Said CS Mucheru. “We asked them to send us pesa ya kutoa and most of them have not acted on that. We are not willing to disburse huge amounts of money without being sure that the recipients have the capacity to withdraw it.”
The crisis has caused many of the young people who started their business with only hope to borrow money in the hope that new money will be coming, but now they have only pain and tears to show for their work. So bad is the situation that some of them have already been evicted from the streets where they have been living since money was delayed in February.
Some political commentators have argued that MbeleNaBiz competition was established to teach the young people the basics of government, and they are actually learning that the government isn’t and won’t be their grandfather.
