An education rights lobby is headed to Court to halt Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s school feeding programme dubbed ‘Dishi na County’ where centralized kitchens will be built to prepare lunch for primary school learners in 10 sub-counties
In an open letter to the Governor, Tunza Mtoto Coalition Executive Director Janet Muthoni Ouko said that the Ksh1.2 billion meant to build the kitchens should have been used to build more Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres and public schools to ease congestion and help learners.
“We have evidence that lack of school feeding in Nairobi is not the number one reason why Nairobi children are out of school. Levies are,” she said.
Ms. Ouko said that Nairobi has only 205 public primary schools and at least 3,000 non-formal schools which are highly concentrated in Kibra, Mathare, Mukuru, Kibagare, Kiambiu, Maili Saba and Kawangware.
She argued that there was no inclusivity in the school feeding program as it is aimed to benefit public schools only which are just 11.2 per cent of the students across the county.
Ms. Ouko observed that lack of school fees, rather than hunger, was the number one reason why Nairobi children were out of school.
The former Education CEC further faulted the governor for planning to spend money on a function that is not devolved.
According to the Director, the programme will also entrench inequality as it is aimed to benefit public schools only which are just 11.2 percent of students across the county while entirely neglecting those in non-formal schools.
“We shall move to court to seek orders stopping spending of Nairobi County funds in programmes that further marginalize the poorest of the poor in Nairobi,” she said.
Apart from seeking legal actions, Ms. Ouko said that she will seek the Senate’s intervention to ensure a pro-active response to avert the loss of value for money.
“We are asking the Senate, is county money to be spent at the governor’s discretion even when that discretion is clearly inconsistent with logic and the existing law?” She posed.
By Vostine Ratemo and Thuita Jaswant
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
