MLSSS Sessional Paper No 2 of 2014 on the National Social Protection Policy

At the time of independence in 1963 Poverty, disease, and ignorance were identified as some of the critical challenges facing the new nation of Kenya. While an appreciable degree of success has been achieved in the areas such as education, progress in reducing poverty and providing healthcare has been at a more modest degree. Fifty years after independence, poverty and vulnerability remain major challenges, with almost one in every two Kenyans trapped in a long-term, chronic and intergenerational cycle of poverty.

Health risks that require a household to pay for medical treatment are of special concern to poor households. The cost of each illness, injury, or accident can range from very small, for example, covering the cost of simple medication, to astronomical, such as, charges for major surgeries. There are also illnesses associated with mass covariant risks such as epidemics or natural disasters. These health risks tend to be difficult if not impossible to predict and affect many people at the same time. The households‟ limited ability to predict when and how often they will be affected and how much these illnesses are likely to cost them generates more uncertainty than many other risks.

From a social security perspective, the challenges include but are not limited to providing retirement pensions, sickness benefits, maternity protection, employment injury and disease protection (workers‟ compensation), survivors‟ benefits, disability coverage, family benefits, and unemployment protection.

This Sessional Paper on the National Social Policy has been developed to address these challenges and is going to be an important commitment by the Government to reduce poverty and the vulnerability of the population to economic, social, and natural shocks and stresses. These broad strategies will play an important role in increasing access to social welfare services, not only for those without predictable income, but also for those in employment and the self-employed who need financial cushioning against future risks such as loss of employment, injury at work, loss of assets or sickness. The Paper builds on and reaffirms Kenya‟s commitment to poverty reduction as articulated in various policy documents, development plan including Kenya Vision 2030 and as reflected by the continuous increase in the budgetary allocations to the vulnerable population.

The Sessional Paper will also help individuals and households to reach a better balance between care-giving and productive work responsibilities. This is critical for the achievement of national and international human welfare thresholds such as the Rights and guarantees provided by the Constitution of Kenya, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as international agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which identify social protection as a fundamental human right for all citizens. This Paper is also in line with the East African Community and African Union commitments to social policy interventions.

Broadly, the measures outlined in this Sessional Paper are aimed at ensuring that all people have the requisite financial cushions to enable them to maintain a decent standard of living. These include access to healthcare during and after their active productive ages, income security provided through household and child benefits that facilitate access to nutrition, education, and healthcare, income security through social assistance for older persons, people with disabilities, and those in active age groups who are unable to earn sufficient incomes in the labour market.

Social protection interventions are provided by many different stakeholders including Government Ministries and agencies, the private sector, communities, households, and other non-state actors. In the past, these different actors have often operated in isolation from one another hence diminishing their potential impact. Through this Sessional Paper, the Government of Kenya will review and align existing social protection strategies, programmes, and activities with a view to promoting synergy and minimizing duplication, conflict and wastage.

The Sessional Paper recognizes and builds on existing social protection initiatives such as education bursaries, school feeding programmes, agriculture subsidies, fee waivers in public health facilities, Orphans and Vulnerable Children‟s (OVC) Cash Transfer programme, Older Persons Cash Transfer, Persons with Severe Disabilities Cash Transfer Programme and Youth Enterprise Fund, among others.

Some of the schemes targeted for review and reform include but are not limited to: the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), the Civil Service Pension scheme, various retirement benefit schemes provided under the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) Act, the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), and the various cash transfer programmes. The Government is also cognizant of the fact that informal community support and extended families provide a significant form of social protection to our people.

The Paper also focuses on the most appropriate principles and arrangements for funding social protection in Kenya and addresses such issues as the appropriate level of funding required, funding sources, the way to make savings in the system by harmonizing the provision of social protection, and how these savings can be reallocated to other areas of social protection in need of support.

This Sessional Paper was developed through a process that involved widespread consultations and participation of several stakeholders including development partners and the general public thereby engendering ownership by all concerned parties. I wish to thank all those who gave their input either individually or through their organisations and institutions. Special thanks go to our development partners, particularly the Department for International Development (DFID), UNICEF, and the World Bank for their technical and financial support during the entire process.

I also wish to thank the technical working group and all the other stakeholders who worked tirelessly to ensure that the drafting of Sessional Paper is completed on time.

The implementation of the Sessional Paper will undoubtedly, require vast resources. In this respect, I call upon all stakeholders to work in partnership in order to mobilise the required resources as well as to fully participate in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the programmes that will be inspired by this Sessional Paper.

It is our belief that the Sessional Paper on the National Social Protection Policy will help positively transform the lives of the Kenyan people.

HON. SAMWEL K. KAMBI
MINISTER OF LABOUR, SOCIAL SECURITY AND SERVICES