Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna has called upon the county government of Nairobi to include private schools based in slums in the school feeding programme.
According to the senator, who is also the Secretary general for ODM, some of the children in private schools are not there by choice, but because public schools are full and their parents had no option but enroll them in the private institutions.
“School feeding programme should not discriminate. It is not by choice that they are in private schools. Public schools are not enough. You will find that there is no public primary school in a whole ward,” Sifuna said.
“It must be extended to children in private schools in informal settlements because there is no justification why they should not be left out,” he said, during a meeting with education stakeholders in informal settlements.
Nairobi governor Johson Sakaja launched the feeding programme in late August 2023, aiming at providing meals to 250,000 learners in public primary schools and early childhood education centres.
“The programme will ensure the provision of a daily nutritionally balanced hot meal for all children in public primary schools and public early childhood development centres,” Sakaja said at the launch of the programme,” the governor said.
