The Kenya National Union of Teachers Baringo branch has warned that most students from drought-hit areas will probably drop out of school next term.
Knut executive secretary Joshua Cheptarus is asking the government give out enough food to hungry families this Easter holiday to prevent massive dropouts.
“The government should move faster to supply relief foodstuffs to cushion the hunger-stricken families, otherwise we might end up losing many children from our schools in May,” Cheptarus said on Wednesday.
He said, however, that as schools close and children break for Easter holiday parents have problems feeding them at home.
“In Baringo, owing to hunger and scarcity of water and pasture, most parents are forced to migrate with their children," Cheptarus said.
The county is inhabited by the Tugen, Pokot, and Ilchamus pastoral communities. The hardest-hit areas are Baringo North, Baringo Central, Tiaty and Baringo South subcounties, Cheptarus said.
The unionist said apart from food and supplements, residents urgently need water bowsers for clean water.
Childcare intervention
On Monday, the government through the Childcare Society of Kenya supplied 55 primary schools in Tiaty subcounty with foodstuffs and learning materials.
Programme coordinator Peter Njuguna said the donation benefited 13,091 pupils in almost the entire schools in Ripko-Kositei, Silale and Tangulbei-Korossi wards.
“We realised the ongoing drought and hunger situation was likely to affect learning among schoolgoing children that is why we had to intervene," Njuguna said.
He said apart from Baringo, the programme also targets schools in Tukana, Isiolo and Marsabit counties to ensure the children attend school next term.
Each pupil gets six bags of maize, 1.5kg beans, five exercise books, a pen and a pencil, Njuguna said.
He said cumulatively they supplied 421 bags of maize, 105 bags of beans, 20 litres cooking oil, 31,600 exercise books, 6,320 pens and pencils and 180 cartons of soaps to boarding schools. They also distributed 2,390 items of clothing for young children.
“We based our intervention on the statistical list by the Education ministry," Njuguna said. Their budget was so stretched the could not cover all affected schools in Baringo.
Baringo director of Education Moses Karati confirmed that most schools had exhausted their food stock early this term saying the need for more food was "dire".
