Lobby Opposes Sakaja’s Free School Meals Proposal
The Governor of Nairobi, Johnson Sakaja, faces a lawsuit over his administration’s plan to spend Sh800 million to provide free lunches to students in the city’s public primary schools.
The Tunza Mtoto Coalition, an education lobby, has criticized the governor for spending money on a non-devolved function.
Muthoni Ouko, executive director of Tunza Mtoto, stated that the organization has already requested Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o to reject county expenditures on mandates not delegated by the Constitution.
She stated that the school feeding program, dubbed “Dishi na County,” will also exacerbate inequality because it targets only a subset of needy students in public primary schools while ignoring those in non-formal schools entirely.
Ms. Ouko, who formerly oversaw the county’s Education department under former Governor Mike Sonko, asserts that there are more needy children in Nairobi’s non-formal schools than in public primary schools.
She explained that while there are only 205 public primary schools in Nairobi, there are over 3,000 non-formal schools in informal settlements such as Kibra, Mathare, Mukuru, Kibagare, Kiambiu, and Kawangware.
Ms. Ouko provided the example of Njiru Ward, which has only two public primary schools compared to over 15 non-formal schools that accommodate all the children who cannot be accommodated in the two public schools.
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No primary public schools
She also stated that there are approximately ten wards in Nairobi without a single public primary school, including Pipeline, Imara Daima, Ngando, Lindi, Laini Saba, Kware, Matopeni/Spring Valley, Saragombe, and Lucky Summer.
Ms. Ouko stated, “We will seek court orders to stop the expenditure of Nairobi County funds on programs that further marginalize the poorest of the poor in Nairobi.”
She stated, “Children in non-formal schools are not there by choice, but rather due to lack of space and the high cost of entering the formal education system.”
According to the Constitution’s Fourth Schedule, primary education is not a devolved function, but early childhood development education (ECDE) is.
She argued that the massive investment would have been better spent on establishing more ECDEs to help enroll more children in public schools, stating that the money could have been used to construct eight schools per year for Sh100 million each.
She argued that, of the 250,000 children of ECDE-attending age in the capital, only 28,000 have space in public ECDE centers, forcing the rest to attend non-formal centers or private schools, where their parents struggle to pay levies despite paying county taxes.
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Ms. Muthoni observed that lack of school fees, not hunger, is the leading cause of children in Nairobi being out of school.
“As a result of feeding children in public schools, the governor will only feed 11,2 percent of the population. “It is evident from the foregoing that the feeding program will exacerbate the inequality and marginalization that have long plagued children who have been denied access to public schools,” she said.
She stated that if the governor proceeds with the free meals initiative that is scheduled to begin in the third term, Tunza Mtoto will seek Senate intervention to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.
She added that the group will petition the County Assembly and make a special appeal to MCAs whose wards do not contain a single public primary school and whose children will be mere spectators in the initiative.
“We will mobilize parents of disadvantaged children into mass action to prevent a rough start to what appears to be a difficult five-year journey.”
Lobby Opposes Sakaja’s Free School Meals Proposal
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