By Asma’u Ahmad
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Kenya Country Director, Annalisa Conte, said it planned to feed 600,000 school children in Kenya in 2016.
Ms. Conte told newsmen in Nairobi that her organisation had been conducting the school feeding programme for the past 30 years.
Since 2009, Kenya has also been complementing WFP efforts to fund the school feeding programme.
She said Kenya’s economy is rapidly expanding and so it has the capacity to fund the programme using domestic resources.
According to the WFP, it costs between 0.1 to 0.12 cents to feed each pupil per day. The government is currently funding 1 million school children under the Home Grown School Meals Programme (HGSMP).
The programme is conducted mainly in arid and semi-arid sub-counties in order to improve access to education in the areas.
Conte said the school feeding programme is an investment for Kenya’s future.
“We have seen that the school meals programme has increased the school attendance level particularly in areas where poverty and food insecurity persist,” she said.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Principal Secretary, Dr. Belio Kipsang, said the school feeding programme had helped to increase the country’s transition rate from primary to secondaryeducation.
“So, we are going to gradually increase our funding because of the benefits of the programme,” Kipsang said.
