Makueni First Lady Nazi Kivutha is spearheading an initiative to ensure there are enough textbooks in schools in the county.
Through her recently formed Shina Foundation, Nazi has partnered with Children International Kenya to realise this goal.
Last week, Children International Kenya donated 14,000 textbooks to 40 primary and 40 secondary schools in the county.
Nazi said the idea is to cultivate a reading culture among the youth through provision of enough reading materials in schools.
“The reading culture in some schools is poor because of very limited reading materials," said Nazi.
“You will realise that people these days do not read much because there is that feeling that one can just Google and get any information they want but we believe that books make the best reference materials for learning, especially in schools.”
Nazi said in collaboration with the county education office, they were able to select the needy schools, most of which lack libraries.
She added that her foundation is looking forward to partnering with StoryMoja in starting 30 libraries within the county.
“We have an agreement with StoryMoja Foundation to start a library in each ward within the county. The target is to have at least a library in each school in the near feature,” she said.
Children International Kenya Country Director Dominic Simba hands over some of the donated books to the Makueni County First lady Nazi Kivutha. Looking on is the Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana. Pix
The acting country director Children International Kenya Dominic Simba said the initiative is part of the programmes that the organisation runs under 'gifts in kind'.
In the last one year, the organisation distributed more than 200,000 textbooks in 14 counties in the country.
Makueni Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana, who attended the ceremony at Makueni Boys high school, took issue with the taxation of school textbooks, saying it is discouraging donors.
“I wish the government was not imposing taxes on school text books so that more donors can come in to assist. If you consider the freight and the taxes involved for these books to be here, you find it's more than Sh600,000, which is a lot of money,” Kibwana said.
He said the Council of Governors will take up the matter with the national government so that more schools can benefit.