Advocacy Group of Education Rights Challenges Sakaja’s Feeding Programme in Court
Advocacy Group of Education Rights Challenges Sakaja’s Feeding Programme in Court. An advocacy group for education rights is suing the Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja over his “Dishi na County” school feeding program, which calls for the establishment of centralized kitchens to provide lunch to primary school children in 10 sub-counties.
In an open letter to the Governor, Janet Muthoni Ouko, executive director of the Tunza Mtoto Coalition, argued that rather than spending Ksh1.2 billion on kitchens, more public schools and Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centers should have been built to relieve traffic and benefit students.
We have proof that Nairobi’s students are not skipping class mostly because there aren’t enough school lunches available. She retorted that they are charges.
According to Ms. Ouko, Nairobi only has 205 public primary schools, but there are at least 3,000 non-formal educational institutions, the majority of which are found in the areas around Kibra, Mathare, Mukuru, Kibagare, Kiambiu, Maili Saba, and Kawangware.
She said that the school food program was not inclusive because it mostly benefited public schools, which enroll 11.2% of the county’s total population of pupils.
Ms. Ouko pointed out that lack of school supplies, not hunger, was what kept kids in Nairobi from attending class.
The former CEC for Education also criticized the governor for seeking to spend money on a project that is not devolved.
The project, according to the director, would also perpetuate inequality because it is primarily meant to help public schools, which only enroll 11.2% of all children in the county, while disregarding those who attend non-formal schools entirely.
“We shall move to court to seek orders stopping the expenditure of Nairobi County funds in programs that further marginalize the poorest of the poor in Nairobi,” she said.
Ms. Ouko said she would like the Senate to get involved in addition to taking legal action to ensure a quick response to avert the loss of value for money.
We put this question to the Senate: “Is county money to be spent at the governor’s whim even when that whim obviously runs counter to reason and the law as it is now?” She took a position.