By Jeff Mwangi
Efforts by the National Government to transit regular school meals programme from World Food Programme (WFP) to home grown school feeding programme are underway with cash transfers being directly sent to respective schools.
The cash transfer targeting individual pupils and students in Arid and Semi-Arid parts of the country and informal settlements in Nairobi is aimed at scrapping provision of meals in kind to schools.
Marsabit County already has over 45,000 pupils in 179 primary schools who are benefiting from the said programme with 1.6 million pupils receiving the daily hot meals as a way of retaining children in school.
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been funding the programme through WFP and has greatly assisted retention and uninterrupted learning in Marsabit County and other counties which are usually affected by drought.
Ministry of Education Director Darius Ogutu for Policy, partnerships and East Africa Affairs said the programme will transit from regular school meals to cash transfer starting next year.
“Home grown school feeding programme is a programme by the Government where instead of providing food, cash will be transferred directly for schools to buy the rations locally,” Mr. Ogutu said during a ceremony at Kamotonyi Primary School in Laisamis Sub-county of Marsabit County.
The ceremony meant to mark the transition was also attended by officials from the American Embassy and WFP.
WFP has been spending Sh850 million per year in the programme but the Government has scaled up the same to a tune of Sh2.5 billion.
As a way of sustaining the programme, the Government is expected to adjust the budget upwards to Sh3.45 billion a year in order to ensure targeted pupils get meals for 195 days school calendar.
In line with reforms in the Ministry of Education, the new approach which targets individual beneficiary pupil, school managements will source for food from farmers and traders within the school locality. This, Mr. Ogutu said, would offer farmers market for their produce and consequently promote agriculture and trade.
He, however, said the decision by the America government to pull out of the programme will not affect the programme as Kenya had put measures to ensure feeding in schools is not interrupted.
“We are looking forward to a smooth transition from our longtime partner in development and donor so that the change is smooth”, the Director said.
Officials from the American embassy stressed on the need of the programme to pupils and education sector, adding that they had high expectations that Kenya Government will be able to effectively manage the programme once it is handed over.
Agricultural counselor Kevin Sage-EL and WFP Country Deputy Director Thomas Hansson said the programme was core to the interest of students especially during the dry spell.
“WFP’s presence will still be there as the organisation will continue to offer technical support”, noted Mr. Sage-EL.
He said that US had for many years supported the well-being of more than 1.5 million children in basic education in the country, and appreciated Kenya Government for taking the lead among African countries in building base in supporting her own children.
