Nairobi County Governor Johnson Sakaja has refuted claims that Nairobi County has lost Sh144 million donated by the French Government to the Dishi Na County Program.
Speaking before the Senate Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations in Machakos, Governor Sakaja clarified that a donation was made to Food4Education to support their school feeding programme including in Nairobi.
“The donation was not made directly to the county Government of Nairobi. The money in question has been used for food subsidy to cushion 25,000 learners who cannot afford the Sh5 required per child,” Sakaja said.
The Governor further explained that Dishi na County feeds 184,000 meals per day against an enrolment of 360,000 children which means more than half of the children have access to the meals.
The number of children receiving meals under the programme is expected to increase when schools open this term with eight new schools coming on board.
Dishi na County was launched last year with the groundbreaking of 10 kitchens across the county with the first meal being served on August 28, 2023.
In January this year, the second phase of the programme was launched increasing the number of children receiving a hot nutritious meal to 184,000 from 80,000 meals.
In March 2024, the groundbreaking of seven new kitchens was done.
Once the kitchens are completed, the Dishi na County Programme will be feeding over 300,000 students in public primary schools and ECDs across Nairobi County.
He assured parents of the County's commitment to ensuring that the Dishi Na County program is successful once schools reopen.
Nairobi County partnered with Food4Education, a non-profit organisation to implement the program. Food4Education also operates in other counties including Muranga and Mombasa.
