Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has revealed that some of the school children faint in class due to lack of food.
Speaking in an interview with Citizen TV on Wednesday, Sakaja said that half of the students in most of the schools in Nairobi, barely carry lunch meals.
“I asked children in Bidii Primary School, Buruburu, and also in Muthangari where we are building kitchens, how many of you have carried lunch today? It was only half of them,” Sakaja said.
“I asked them, then what do you do when it's lunchtime? And they said sometimes they share... I called all the head teachers and they gave me stories of how they have to share their own food and how some children faint in class due to hunger,” he said.
He went on to say that the government has the mandate to provide food to learners since it is necessary.
“Feeding kids in school is not a county or national function, it’s a leadership imperative that we have to do,” Sakaja said.
To help the learners, Sakaja launched the school feeding programme in Roysambu on Tuesday, for children who struggle to go to school because of hunger.
It will cost Sh5 for school children in public schools and ECDEs within Nairobi to get free meals in the next financial year 2023-2024.
The governor broke into tears as he spoke on his Dishi na County initiative, to feed Nairobi learners, narrating how important the programme was to him.
"The reason why I broke down, I was just remembering the resistance to this program. I have been going to schools and the kids would run to me and you could see how they are reacting when they see food," Sakaja.
He added that some children lack concentration in school due to a lack of meals.
