APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA 244. The cash transfer programmes in place are: Older Persons Cash Transfer: the Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children: the Hunger Safety Net Program: the Urban Food Subsidy Cash Transfer: and the Persons with Severe Disability Cash Transfer. However, there have been mixed results in the expected outcomes. An audit of the cash transfers indicates that women and girls have benefited more than men as 73% of the beneficiaries across the board, and that 70% recipients are actually the poorest of the poor.25 However complaints of backlog in receiving funds of up to 5 months or even a year as well as of hidden costs borne by recipients could lead to counterproductive results.26 The NGEC has shared concerns on the lack of information on the administration of the cash transfer programme that makes it hard to track the disbursements.27 245. The Uwezo fund was geared at promoting the right to employment of the working vulnerable and marginalised groups and 30% of the Political Parties fund was earmarked for the participation of vulnerable and marginalised groups. These and several other initiatives put in place by government are an indicator of prioritisation of the affirmative action gender principle. The practice and implementation however has not yet yielded the desired results. 246. In general, the participation of vulnerable groups in political activities and representation through affirmative action measures was embedded in the Constitution 2010. However implementation thereof became troubled by failure of political parties to ensure inclusive nominations thus marginalizing vulnerable groups at this level. Party lists and nominations that did not conform to Constitutional guarantees formed the grounds of a petition by NGEC (Constitutional Petition 147 of 2013), which challenged the IEBC for failing to conduct the elections of special seats to the National Assembly, Senate and the County Assemblies. The court ordered the IEBC to publish county assembly lists in the local dailies and based on that, interest groups were able to lodge complaints with the tribunal. 3.10.2.2 Persons with disabilities (PWDs) 247. The Kenya National Population Census, 2009 estimated that there were about 1,330,312 PWDs. The Constitution recognises the rights of PWDs to live dignified and empowered lives through various measures including affirmative action. While Kenya has committed to give effect to the Bill of Rights through various legislative reforms, the Persons with Disabilities Act 2003 is outdated and the Persons with Disabilities Bill 2015 has not been passed to reflect rights based approaches for PWDs. 248. In general, data on the situation of PWDs is inadequately captured in mainstream planning and governance indices. Thus the 2012 Analytical report on Disability XIII based on the 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census is a positive measure in capturing the profile of this group. National Gender and Equality Commission ‘Participation of Vulnerable Populations in their own Programmes: the Cash Transfers In Kenya’ 2014 26 ibid 27 http://www.ngeckenya.org/news/6164/share-data-on-cash-transfer-program-ngec 25 | 123 |