Kenya’s ‘Universal’ social pension: The politics of registration in Marsabit County

In 2017 the government of Kenya transformed its poverty-targeted older persons cash transfer into a ‘70-plus’ social pension. While the literature suggests that a switch from targeted to universal programs would simplify registration and reduce inclusion and exclusion errors, there were significant variations in take-up of the social pension across diverse counties in Kenya, with lower take-up in counties with higher rates of poverty. Drawing on qualitative data collected across six months in 2018, including interviews and focus group discussions with government officials, community leaders, politicians and ordinary citizens, this paper examines why take-up of the social pension has been lower in Marsabit County, an area of the country with high levels of poverty. We find that government officials struggled to register eligible beneficiaries in remote and marginalized communities within the mass registration exercise’s tight timelines. As a result, they often relied on local actors to relay information between the state and local communities, which resulted in uneven registration and the exclusion of some marginalized populations, particularly in remote and conflicted affected areas. We argue that pressure from the national government to register potential beneficiaries in the month prior to the highly contested 2017 national election exacerbated the challenges posed by low state infrastructural power, including limited resources, low state oversight and a lack of embeddedness within local communities. The visible expansion of the social pension prior to the election was prioritized over achieving universal registration. This paper contributes to the literature on universal versus targeted approaches to social assistance and furthers our knowledge of the challenges of reaching the poorest of the poor even through nominally ‘universal’ programs. While universal approaches expand access to social assistance, this paper highlights the importance of ongoing registration and investments in state infrastructural power to ensure that remote and marginalized populations can access social assistance.