It begins like those Kenyan long cons.
A bright idea hyped by the media and forced on all parents including the ones who could afford to pay what they were paying for the various schools their kids were enrolled in.
Nairobi County Governor Sakaja Johnson’s Dishi Na County school feeding programme has started on a bad footing after students were asked to bring lunch for the entire week
Schools opened for a new term on Monday 28th August 2023, and most parents didn’t have a way of knowing whether to pay for school food using the old way or through the new scheme by the county government of Nairobi.
The new scheme that targets over 250,000 kids will be rolled out in three phases. Each child is supposed to pay Sh5 for a meal where the County government has partnered with a non-governmental organisation (NGO)
Critics see the school feeding programme as unnecessary because of its blanket rollout requiring payments from all parents whether they could afford to pay for food for their kids or not.
In some schools, parents parted with over Sh1000 per term and most were comfortable with that.
Others have expressed their fears that their kids will be fed with Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) and want out.
Before the launch, while setting the stage for the Dishi Na County school feeding programme, Nairobi Governor Sakaja shed tears while recounting the hardships pupils face in Nairobi as pertains to hunger in schools.
Umoja News feels that the rollout of the school feeding programme should be halted and only applied to pupils whose parents are unable to fend for them. Paying Sh5 per day is not going to provide kids with quality mills. Parents could afford over Sh100 per month.
The Sh5 per day roughly translates to Sh110 per month.
The county has already built school feeding centres in schools ready for the rollout that might never be in the coming three weeks.
Parents and schools have to grapple with a new cost, the one of food handling and hygiene as they are required to give their kids packed lunch.
