The fight against malnutrition is set to get a boost after the government launched an initiative to establish one million kitchen gardens in the country.

Launching the programme in Nyandarua at the weekend, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya (pictured) said families will get a kit comprising several sachets of seeds of different traditional and exotic vegetables and a net.

Speaking at Kirimangai village, Weru ward in Oljoroorok sub-county where he distributed the kits to several groups and schools 4K Clubs, the CS said the nets would be used to dry the vegetable leaves for preservation.

The CS also commissioned the Ex-Jacob dam in the same area. The dam has been revamped at a cost of Sh130 million as part of an Sh192 small irrigation and value addition programme (SIVAP) Kagongo association project that is going to benefit 800 people in the locality.

Munya said the project will be expanded with several boreholes being sunk in areas where water from the dam will not reach. There will be 27km of road improvement around the project to enable the farmers to deliver their produce to the marketing sheds.

He said the SIVAP projects being funded by the ADB are being undertaken in Nyandarua, Tharaka Nithi, Kitui, Makueni, Machakos, Tana River, Bomet, Kajiado, Murang’a, Nyeri and Meru.

“The implementation of the projects might not be as fast as we would like because it takes a process before the money is received from ADB,” Munya said in response to a query by former Weru MCA Kimani Moses.

Munya was accompanied by Water and Irrigation CS, Sicily Kariuki and Nyandarua governor Francis Kimemia.