Sakaja promises to prioritise school feeding programme

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has said he will prioritise the school feeding programme.

He said the programme will target public schools that are heavily impacted by urban poverty which is a major disruption in school attendance.

Sakaja spoke on Thursday during a meeting with Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan when she visited the governor.

The governor welcomed the partnership with the World Food Programme under Princess Sarah in supporting the feeding programme and increasing nutrition.

He said the initiative is a welcome gesture and Nairobi will seek to partner with like-minded individuals.

“We have been piloting the project in a few schools in Nairobi and have seen attendance in school go up by 100 per cent while performance has also improved by over 60 per cent,” Sakaja said.

Princess Sarah said she is focused on increasing nutrition for urban residents which in effect also increases output and plays a major role in wealth creation.

She said WFP will be willing to partner with Nairobi county in proving technical support for the school feeding programme.

“Such kind of initiatives are an important safety net that helps in fighting hunger and increase nutrition amongst our population,” Princess Sarah said.

Sakaja said he has had a discussion with President-elect William Ruto on the school feeding programme.

He said he was assured that the national government will roll out a national school feeding programme once the new administration has been sworn in.

“The national government will undertake to finance and roll out the feeding programme countrywide and will depend on Nairobi for learning lessons,” the governor said.

Nairobi Metropolitan director general Mohammed Badi said his office has managed to improve health services in Nairobi by setting up eight new health facilities in Nairobi and renovating about 10 more to ensure residents receive quality health service.

NMS is in the process of handing over all the health centres and other projects to the new Nairobi county administration.

Princess Sara expressed her gratitude to the government for being part of a global initiative where governments have taken the step of feeding their people through fascial allocation, by feeding school-going children and increasing nutrition and fighting the high mortality rate around the globe.