• Ayah said he initiated the feeding programme especially during examination period not because of politics but responding to the challenges many families are facing.
• The pads are given to girls of adolescent age. More than 1,000 school girls are targeted under the programme.
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@alalmaurice
A feeding and sanitary towels distribution programme has been launched in Seme, Kisumu, to retain children in school.
The programme was initiated by Seme parliamentary aspirant Dr Richard Ayah in all public schools.
He said he initiated the feeding programme especially during examination period not because of politics but in responding to the challenges facing many families in Seme.
Ayah, who was accompanied by his wife, spoke at St Barnabas Secondary School during an open day on Friday.
He runs the initiatives under the Ayah Foundation in memory of his deceased father who served Kisumu Rural constituency for many years.
Ayah, who is the son of the former Kisumu Rural MP and Foreign Affairs minister Wilson Ndolo Ayah, wants to unseat incumbent James Nyikal.
They will battle out for the ODM party ticket in April before the August general election.
He is a public health specialist who has worked at the University of Nairobi as director of Science and Technology, consultant for Unicef, WHO and director, Centre for Health Solutions and Radio Africa.
The aspirant is a Health Policy and Health Systems Management senior lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of Nairobi. Ayah is also a member of the Task Force on Covid-19 Vaccine Development.
He said Seme has been lagging behind in matters of education, especially performance due to the high poverty levels which keep children out of schools.
“Under Ayah for education, we are going to provide schools with cereals to feed children. The initiative is purely to support our children,” Ayah said.
He assured parents and students that the initiative will be sustainable even after politics.
Ayah said they are also distributing sanitary pads to girls in all public schools in Seme to complement the government’s effort, which is not adequate.
The pads are given to girls of adolescent age. More than 1,000 school girls are targeted under the programme.
He said most children miss going to school and perform poorly in examinations due to lack of pads during menstruation.
Ayah, who gave out sanitary towels to girls at Orando Primary School, said their main aim is to ensure girls are retained in schools at all times.
“We want our girls to have ample time to study so that they can perform well because education is the best investment we can give to our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ayah said the decision by ODM to conduct party primaries through a digital platform will disenfranchise a number of constituencies in the rural areas.
He said that constituencies with low economic growth coupled with poor network connectivity will be disadvantaged adding that the process might stifle the spirit of democracy.
“80 per cent of people in Seme are not enabled in terms of using a digital platform. It is because our economy is still weak or a small one,” Ayah said.
He said the party still needs to focus on physical voting because people are still sharing phones, especially in rural areas.
“People want to participate in democracy and part of participating in democracy is to see that your candidate Richard Ayah wins,” he said.
Ayah said his commitment to ODM will be focused on strengthening systems that will put in place working structures that promote free, fair and credible outcome of results.
“We should help our party leader Raila Odinga to have a strong party with good structures in place when he clinches the presidency,” he said.
The ODM National Elections Board had earlier in the week announced its intention to carry out party primaries on a digital platform to safeguard credibility of the results.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)