Miss World Kiambu Charity Kimani has vowed to send street children to school in a partnership deal with the county government.
The programme, dubbed ‘Watoto Tusome’, is set to be launched early next year in Kiambu County where many children are not in school and parents have abandoned their responsibilities to educate their children.
Kimani said she toured various wards in Kiambu and noticed that many children were out of school, resulting in rapid increase of street children, crime and drug abuse.
“I have gone to almost all the wards in Kiambu and I’m so sad to say that many children drop out of school due to lack of fees and food,” said Kimani.
She said the low number of early childhood education centres had forced education executive Esther Ndirangu to introduce a feeding programme in various schools to keep young learners in class.
The feeding programme has since encouraged the children to consistently attend school since at home they rarely get enough food, she added
The beauty queen promised to ‘push’ Governor William Kabogo to allow the initiative to reduce street children whom she said have become a nuisance to the residents.
“I will push Kabogo into validating this initiative to rescue the street children in Kiambu,” said Kimani.
Kiambu TNA coordinator Chania Gladys and the residents had earlier raised the same concerns over the rising number of street children in Thika.