BY REBECCA WANGARI
Murang’a County Government will roll out its subsidised school feeding programme across more than 600 nursery, primary and junior secondary schools from January 2027, Governor Irungu Kang’ata has said.
The expanded programme will build on a two-year pilot implemented in 90 schools, under which parents have been paying Sh20 per day for their children to receive meals at school.
Under the expanded programme, the daily contribution will be reduced to Sh15 per child, with the county government seeking to make school meals more affordable while ensuring that no learner attends classes on an empty stomach.
The Sh200 million programme is being implemented in partnership with Food for Education, an organisation that has been supporting school meals programmes in Kenya since 2012.
Kang’ata said the pilot had been successful, prompting the county government to expand the programme to more than 600 schools.
“During the piloting stage, we realised that a majority of the parents are able to pay for the meals and that’s why we decided to roll it out in other schools,” he said.
The governor, however, said the county government would fully cater for meals for 20,000 learners from vulnerable backgrounds whose parents cannot afford the daily contribution.
He said thorough vetting had been conducted to identify beneficiaries, with learners with disabilities, children from vulnerable households, those with disabled parents and vulnerable children from single-parent families given priority.
“In our research, we noted that between 70 per cent and 92 per cent of the children have been taking the meals and, with reduced prices, it will be affordable for the parents,” Kang’ata said.
The governor said the expanded programme would not only address hunger among learners but also create a reliable market for agricultural produce from local farmers who will supply food to schools.
He added that the programme would create employment opportunities as more people would be hired to prepare, cook and serve meals in schools.
Kang’ata said additional infrastructure would also be developed to support the programme, including modern kitchens.
“We will have modern kitchens set up in schools. Some of them are under construction and will be completed soon,” he said.
The governor said the programme was being implemented in line with an intergovernmental partnership agreement between the county government and the Ministry of Education, as well as the schools meals policy and a memorandum of understanding between the county and Food for Education.
Food for Education has been implementing school meals programmes in Kenya since 2012 and currently operates in several counties.
The organisation says its partnerships with county governments include co-funding arrangements aimed at making school meals more affordable for learners.
