Today would have been the first day of the ‘Dishi na County’ feeding program in Nairobi. ‘Dishi na County’ is a school feeding programme initiated by Johnson Sakaja, the Governor of Nairobi.
The programme was launched in partnership with the National and French Governments. The programme will provide free lunch to all pupils in public schools in Nairobi County.
The initial decision was that the students would be required to pay Ksh 5 daily to access the meals. The Ksh 5 per pupil would be used to sustain the programme. After the initial promises and plans to kick off the programme on Monday, the programme failed to start.
Pupils paid the amount they were required to pay to access the meals to be offered. Consequently, children showed up to school without carrying lunch. Sakaja, however, did not maintain his end of the bargain. The food did not show up and had pupils going hungry for the day.
Read Also: Sakaja Launches a Feeding Plan for Public Schools
Furthermore, the County Government has not communicated why they did not manage to deliver the food as was expected.
‘Dishi na County’ Feeding Programme
” We have built 10 Kitchens to feed 250,000 children and some 88,000 children are on-boarded already,” Sakaja said
Johnson Sakaja listed the food program as one of his legacy projects as the top county administrator two days ago. He made this statement immediately after he was ranked as the worst-performing governor.
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The kitchens, according to the governor, are supposed to prepare the food and transport them to schools. The food would be packed in sealed containers and transported using special vehicles.
Parents are therefore wondering whether or not to send their children to school with packed lunches or to hope the food will be available on Tuesday. Additionally, parents question what would happen to the money they already paid for the food their children didn’t receive.
Pupils Left Hungry as Governor Sakaja Johnson Fails to Deliver on His Promise of Free Lunch.
— The Government Critic 🇰🇪 (@magwaz3) September 18, 2023
The Dishi na County Program was just another scandal for Sakaja to fatten his pockets.
So where did the 5 bob contributed by each kid go?
Babu Owino is right.#CorruptGovernorSakaja pic.twitter.com/6aTnjNGT9o
” Matters are getting out of hand. Machogu should intervene because feeding school children is an important component. We have a county government that came in and disrupted a program teachers and parents used to run,” said the CEO of Tunza Mtoto, a non-profit organization.
Read Also: Tunza Mtoto Coalition Resists Sakaja’s Plan to Give Free Meals
Without communication from the county government, most people are further questioning Sakaja’s competence.
