Chief, parents seek help for hunger-stricken pupils

Parents at Kalima Mundu Primary School in Kyuso ward in Kitui have appealed for relief food supplies to prevent death due to starvation.

This comes after some hungry children fainted last week.

John Muthengi, Kaimu location chief within whose jurisdiction the school falls, on Monday led parents in appealing for adequate food support not only for the learners but the whole community.

Muthengi and the parents spoke to journalists at the school during the delivery of a donation of 15 bags of maize and five bags of beans by a well-wisher, Euticauls Wambua, of the Baptist Chapel in Nairobi.  He said the donation was worth Sh65,000.

Wambua said he learnt of the school’s plight through media and was particularly touched by information that some children had fainted.

The chief called for the reintroduction of the school feeding programme as most families in the area did not have food. 

“Food shortage is real and widespread. There is a need for the government to partner with donors to offer famine relief food to residents across my location,” Muthengi said.   

His sentiments were shared by parents who said most learners are from hunger-stricken families that depend on one meal a day or no even no at all.

Muthakye Mutisya, a parent, said her Grade 5 daughter was among the learners who fainted last week. Her family has been getting support from neighbours.

“My daughter became weak and fainted in school because she had eaten very little food the previous night," she said.

“Before they went to bed I had cooked and shared a 1/4 kilogramme of green grams among my six children. It was not enough for them as I did not have anything else to give them.” 

Rhoda Mwaniki, another parent, said due to rain failure in the past two rainy seasons, last October and March, most families in the area had expended their food reserves.                                

“In most homes, we hardly have any food to feed the children. Sometimes we only have one meal in a day, but in worse times our families can go for up to two days without food. The situation is dire,”  Mwaniki said.

She said pupils do not concentrate in class and post poor results in examinations because of the situation.

Maluki Nduu said that absenteeism has been high among learners. Nduu, who sits on the school management board, however, said the school had by Monday received a donation of 19 bags of maize and five bags of beans following the initial appeal for food support by Kyuso subcounty education director Stephen Mulandi mid-last week.

While appealing for food aid, Mulandi, in a letter to the Kyuso Secondary School principal, said a few learners had fainted.

Chief Muthengi, on Monday, confirmed that the school got a donation of four bags of maize a day after Mulandi appealed for aid.

Edited by Kiilu Damaris