School children lining up to receive food. Photo/UN
The government is set to take charge of school feeding programs from January next year, Education CS Fred Matiangi has announced.
Speaking on Monday, the CS said that the government has increased budgetary allocation to the programme by Sh1.6 billion.
“We want to tell the World Food Programme to go and feed others. We want to give meaning to independence,” said Dr Matiang’i while addressing an Africa Union and WFP continental consultation on homegrown school feeding in Nairobi.
In the financial year starting July, the National Treasury allocated Sh2.5 billion to the school feeding programme.
“Today the programme supports over 1.1 million children while WFP, who is our main partner in the programme, is supporting slightly over 500,000 children,” said the CS.
Matiangi added that WFP would continue providing technical support to the initiative.