Sonko's free school feeding project starts

At least 21,800 children in 229 public ECDE centres will get free milk distributed by the Nairobi county government.

Education executive Lucia Mulwa said yesterday the Sh22 million programme complements the free ECDE launched last year by Governor Mike Sonko.

Last September, Sonko launched the programme on a pilot basis in order to evaluate its impact before full rollout.

The county did its first distribution last Friday in all ECDE centres.

“This programme is expected to greatly improve the health as well as performance of all children in all county-run ECDE centers," Mulwa said.

The milk will be supplied to the children twice a week.

Mulwa said distribution of the milk will be continuous as it has been factored in the sector's budget for the financial year 2019-2020.

“The budget will be adjusted each year and we have started with Sh22 million for now," she said.

Apart from the free milk, the Education executive explained that there will be free food which will be part of the menu which includes ugali, beans, lentils, porridge, vegetables, beef and fruits.

Mulwa said with free education inclusive of food and milk, the county’s enrollment in the centres has increased from 13,000 to 21, 800 in  just one year.

Last September, the enrollment was 5,295 and rose to 17,000 in January. In April it reached 19,618.

As of this month the enrollment stands at 21,800 children.

Some parents were shying away from enrolling their children in the centres because they couldn’t afford lunch.

"Prior to this, it appeared residents of the city had shunned public schools and trooped to private schools to seek education for their children," Mulwa said.

The CEC said she is committed to supervise the programme to ensure its success.