Sakaja reiterates school feeding plan pledge
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja yesterday restated his commitment to start a countywide school feeding programme in keeping with his campaign promise.
The governor who spoke after hosting Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan said the programme will target public schools heavily impacted by urban poverty which causes a major disruption in school attendance.
Sakaja welcomed the partnership by the World Food Programme (WFP) under Princess Sarah in supporting the feeding programme and increasing nutrition in the country.
“We have been piloting the project in a few schools in Nairobi and have seen attendance in school has gone up by 100 per cent while performance has also improved by over 60 per cent in the schools we have partnered with,” the Governor said.
Princess Sarah said she is focused on increasing nutrition for urban residents which in effect also increases output and plays a major role in wealth creation.
She added that WFP will be willing to partner with Nairobi county in providing technical support for the school feeding programme.
“Such kinds of initiatives are an important safety net that helps in fighting hunger and increase nutrition amongst our population,” Princess Sarah added.
The governor also hinted that the national government will also roll out a national school feeding programme once the new administration has been sworn in.
“The national government under Kenya Kwanza will undertake to finance and roll out the feeding programme countrywide and will depend on Nairobi County for learning lessons,” Sakaja added.
On his part, Director General of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) Mohammed Badi added that his office has managed to improve health services in the capital by setting up eight new health facilities. NMS is in the process of handing over all the health centres and other projects to the new Nairobi county administration led by Sakaja.
