About 310 students failed to join Form One owing to the devastating drought and high cost of living.
Subcounty director of education Peter Mbita said the problem is precipitated by poverty the prolonged drought.
“Food shortage has caused 2.4 per cent of girls and 1 per cent of boys not to report to their primary schools because they are day schools,” he said on Sunday.
He said a multi-sector approach has been reached in trying to send the 310 children to form one.
The students, he said, will be picked from their homes by the government and placed in schools near their homes in an operation expected to take place next week.
Last term, there were 9,874 students in all boarding secondary schools but the number rose to 10,874 because they are being fed.
“Because of hunger at home, those students in boarding schools do not even want to go home when schools are closed. This explains the sad situation out there,”he said.
The drought in the Amboseli ecosystem in the south of Kajiado has also forced wildlife out of the designated parks to search for water.
In such situations, cases of human/wildlife conflicts occur when the elephants break into community open water pans to quench their thirst.
Several organisations, local and international, have come together to start a feeding program in 27 schools in four group ranches of Imbirrikani, Kimana, Eselenkei, and Rombo.
The program started on Saturday after the Big Life Foundation, the Aquila Foundation in the United States of America, the Great Plains Foundation, and the UMRA Slaughter House, which exports meat to UEA, joined hands to feed 22,000 pupils in EDC centres, primary schools, and high schools.
According to the executive chairman of Big Life Foundation, Richard Bonham, 800 women will be involved in the cooking of food for the 22,000 children in 27 schools for five months.
