Governor Johnson Sakaja broke down in tears while addressing the crowd during the launch of the Nairobi County school feeding programme held on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
The county boss stated that he was overwhelmed by the sad state of some of the public school-going children in the county and pleaded with President William Ruto to ensure the free meal programme succeeds.
"…Ni uchungu ya hawa watoto. This thing must work there is no other way. These children deserve what your children have," Sakaja stated in reference to Ruto's children.
On his part, Ruto promised to up the number of school children under the school feeding program from 1.6 to 4 million.
He further noted that the national government will support counties run feeding programmes with what he termed 'shilling for a shilling'.
"In each shilling the county channels to feeding programmes, the national government will also support with a similar amount," the president pledged during the event hosted at Roysambu Primary School.
On Monday, Sakaja unveiled ten kitchens to be used in the program dubbed “Dishi Na Sakaja “.
He noted that the Ksh1.2 billion annual project will ensure the provision of a daily nutritionally balanced hot meal for all children in public primary schools and public Early Childhood Development Centers.
“Nutritious meals will be cooked in these central kitchens and the meals transported in special sealed containers and special vehicles to keep the meals safe from contamination and keep them warm, to surrounding schools,” Sakaja said.
Each kitchen is expected to produce about 10,000 nutritional meals daily which will be distributed across each ward.
It will cost Ksh5 for schoolchildren in public schools and ECDEs within Nairobi to get free meals.
