Kenya: Govt Sets Aside Sh154mn to Mitigate Drought Effects in Schools

Uhuru Kenyatta

The government has set aside Sh154 million to be disbursed to various institutions to bolster the school feeding program in parts of the country experiencing drought.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi urged the education officers to monitor the situation and ensure school heads are not stressed as a result of the effects of the drought.

He maintained that teachers should not send children home and indicated that the relief food will be distributed in collaboration with the National Youth Service.

"There are areas in this country that have been affected by drought. Some areas really have serious problems. We have agreed and have also been instructed by the President that in all those schools in areas that have been most affected by the drought, we should now intensify our school feeding program using money from the drought relief program of the government so no teacher should send a student away because of this issue," he said.

Matiangi further explained that the Education Ministry will be publishing a list of the most affected counties and asked school managers not to demand more money from parents.

"We will take food to them and we shall use the NYS. Already we have started in parts of Baringo, Northern Kenya and even some of the areas that are experiencing more problems than usual. We shall continue doing that so that our children can continue with school," he stated.

The Education CS at the same time instructed all county directors in the affected areas to freeze all the education officer's annual leave until the situation improves.

He said the education officials should help manage the situation and hence all officers must be in their respective work stations at all time.The Cabinet Secretary said these were some of the raft of measures to mitigate drought effects.

On her part, Youth and Gender Affairs CS Sicily Kariuki said the government had directed the relief food being distributed to the affected areas will be channeled to the respective schools directly.

This, she said will ensure that no child misses class as a result adding that through NYS, the government will be able to reach all the needy places across the county.