- He said the William Ruto government will ensure no learner fails to go to school due to lack of food.
- Machogu said the government feeds more than 2.5 million learners.
Image: FILE
Education CS Ezekiel Machogu today flagged off 10 lorries which will deliver foodstuffs to schools in 10 counties.
The selected counties are found in the Arid and semi-arid land categories and have been hit hard by the drought.
The counties are Tana River, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Turkana, Samburu, Isiolo and Marsabit.
Machogu spoke Wednesday at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.
“We don’t want any of our pupils to miss school in the pretext that there is no food,” he said.
“We have dispatched 4,313 metric tonnes of rice, 1,150 metric tonnes of beans, 147mt cooking oil and 57mt salt.”
The food will be received by tomorrow morning and is expected to last one month.
Machogu further committed to working with other leaders to deal with the effects of drought in schools.
He said the William Ruto government will ensure no learner fails to go to school due to lack of food.
The CS also launched a handbook dubbed ‘History of Kenya's school meal’.
“Currently, the Ministry of Education is feeding learners in 10 arid counties, 16 semi-arid counties and informal urban settlements in 10 counties,” Machogu said.
“We have sought inter-ministerial and inter-governmental interventions to ensure that food reaches those across the country who cannot access it.”
Machogu said the government feeds more than 2.5 million learners.
This comes a day after members of parliament raised a motion pushing for the school feeding programme in public schools.
Dagoretti South John Kiaire said the programme can be made possible in any constituency.
In his area, Kiarie said he has ensured there is a strategic policy to ensure food is equally distributed to schools.
“Being an MP from the only constituency in the republic with a comprehensive school feeding programme, we have dismantled food cartels in the constituency,” Kiarie said.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula tasked the Ministry of Education to develop a school feeding policy.
Wetang'ula said the policy should cover basic education institutions which are primary and secondary schools.