Elderly men and women from different sub-counties in Garissa queue to receive their welfare cash at the KCB Garissa branch. PHOTO | ABDIMALIK HAJIR | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Thursday, May 28, 2015
A 70-year-old man collapsed and later died of fatigue after queuing for two consecutive days in the sun waiting to receive his share of State welfare cash from a bank in Garissa Town.
Hassan Hajji Keinan, who suffered hypertension and was physically challenged, had travelled 274 kilometres to claim his Sh8,000 stipend, according to family members.
The elderly man had travelled from Mataarba village in Sangailu, Hulugho Sub-County to Garissa Town to get the cumulative amount which had accrued for four months.
The Sh2,000 monthly stipend to vulnerable people, previously channelled through decentralised postal offices, was moved to the Kenya Commercial Bank in Garissa Town.
This has forced thousands of elderly, orphans and disabled person to travel from all seven sub-counties and converge at the bank, which has few branches in the vast north-eastern region.
Mr Guhad Hassan, the eldest son of the deceased, said his father complained of rapid heartbeat while on the queue and then started sweating profusely.
Mr Hassan said the old man was shocked when he reached at the cashier, only to be told that his name was missing among the beneficiaries of the cash transfer programme.
“He started profusely sweating, before he collapsed some metres from the bank and later died while undergoing treatment at a private hospital”, Mr Hassan told journalists.
TAKEN A LOAN
Mr Hassan noted that his father had taken Sh2,000 credit from a trader, with a promise that he would refund the amount once he collected the stipend from the bank.
At the Kenya Commercial Bank’s Garissa branch, there was a long queue of elders waiting for their turn to be given their cash.
Mr Abass Hajji Shurie, the chairperson of Hullugho/Ijara disabled people’s association, faulted the government for “punishing the beneficiaries” of the social welfare fund by forcing them to travel to Garissa to get their money from a single financial institution.
“Initially we had no problem of getting our money since it was coming through our respective postal offices.
“But now we were required to travel from all corners of the county to KCB Garissa branch. We wonder on whose interest the disbursement of money was reduced to one bank”, he said, while being assisted on his wheelchair.
He explained that he had spent 2,000 from Masalani to Garissa and had been forced to hire a person to push him from the lodge where he was staying to the bank for three days as he waited for his Sh8,000 accumulated amount.