Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has come out to explain why he wept in public during the launch of the feeding programme at Roysambu Primary School.
Sakaja said that while speaking on the feeding program on Tuesday, he remembered the struggles of children who go to school while hungry.
"The reason why I broke down, I was just remembering the resistance to this program. I have been going to schools and the kids would run to me and you could see how they are reacting to food," he said on Wednesday.
"It's embarrassing. When you tell them there are plans for lunch they get excited," he added during an interview at Citizen Tv.
The Governor noted some children lack concentration in school due to lack of meals.
"When children are told to go for lunch some of them don't come back to school. The next day even if they come to school and have nothing in their stomachs they have nothing in their minds. That's why we have committed money for the project," he said.
It will cost Sh5 for school children in public schools and ECDEs within Nairobi to get free meals in the next financial year 2023-2024.
The Sh1.2 billion annual plan is part of Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s School Feeding Program dubbed Dishi na County.
On June 12, the groundbreaking of the construction of central kitchens took place in 10 sub-counties.
The construction is expected to take about 10 weeks with the first meal to be served on the first day of the third term of this school year.
The sub-counties include Dagoretti North, Embakasi Central, Embakasi South, Kasarani, Kibra, Makadara, Starehe, Roysamu, Ruaraka, and Westlands.
Governor Sakaja said the project is part of a vision he had for years, to provide a daily nutritionally balanced hot meal for all children in public primary schools and public Early Childhood Development centres.