Lobby group in court to stop Sakaja’s school feeding plan

A lobby group has gone to court seeking to suspend the Nairobi County’s Sh1.2 billon primary school feeding programme, a move that could deny over 250,000 learners the opportunity to enjoy a meal a day while in school.

Tunza Mtoto Coalition Executive Director Janet Muthoni Ouko, whose lobby group represents privately owned informal schools, has asked Constitutional and Human Right Court to suspend the programme until her case is heard and determined.

The low-cost informal schools fall under the umbrella of the Kenya National Alternative Providers for Basic Education and Training (APBET).

She has asked the court to give conservatory orders halting and/or suspending the release and spending of the money allocated to the school-feeding programme known as “Dishi na County” — which is meant to benefit public primary schools.

It was not clear by last evening whether the lobby group had obtained the court orders it was seeking.

According to Muthoni, the programme will entrench inequality because it will only benefit learners in public primary schools while leaving out their counterparts in non-formal learning centres, which are not categorised as public schools.

The lobby group also told the court that the county intends to spend money on a function that is not devolved.

“The governor erred in launching the school feeding programme. That is not a mandate of counties; rather it is the national government’s role,” Muthoni says in court papers.

She also argues that Governor Johnson Sakaja launched the programme without public participation, a decision whose legality she has challenged.

Nairobi County is currently building 10 kitchens across the county with the target of feeding 250,000 pupils in public primary schools.

“Nutritious meals will be cooked in these kitchens and the meals transported in special sealed containers and special vehicles to surrounding schools,” Sakaja said when he launched the programme on June 20.
“Each kitchen is expected to produce about 10,000 nutritional meals daily.”

Now, Muthoni has asked the court to stop any meals from being prepared in any of the kitchens until her case is heard and determined.

She has also asked the court to suspend the release of Sh500 million allocated in the 2023/2024 Financial Year for public participation and engagement in relation to the feeding programme.

“No legal notice was ever published authorising the transfer and delegation of powers, functions and competencies of the national government function in respect to primary schools to the County Government,” the petitioner says.