Nairobi News

Uasin Gishu has rolled out a school milk project that will benefit 40,000 learners in public Early Childhoold Education (ECDE) centres.

The county thus joins eight devolved units that previously adopted school milk projects in the country since the inception of devolution in 2013 to boost learning and provide a market for local dairy farmers.

These include Mombasa, Nairobi, Embu, Meru and Muranga counties.

On May 24, 2023, Uasin Gishu county in partnership with State Processor-New KCC launched the programme in a bid to improve enrolment, retention and transition to primary school level.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang who officiated the launch of the school milk project, noted the project will go a long way in boosting access, retention and transition in schools.

The PS explained the State has doubled the allocation towards the school feeding program from Sh2 billion in the current financial year to Sh4 billion in line with the Kenya kwanza campaign pledge.

Uasin Gishu County Governor Jonathan Bii said his administration was determined to boost education and allocated adequate resources to support the project for the next five years.

On his part, New KCC Managing Director Nixon Sigey said the programme is expected to improve student enrolment and ensure steady market for the dairy farmers in the region.

Mr Sigey revealed that about 10 counties have expressed interest in the project, noting that the project was critical in driving the sector.

In 2015, the Kenya Dairy Board, dairy industry regulator launched and held discussions with counties in a bid to woo them to adopt the milk programme to create markets for locally produced milk and increase enrolment.

Mombasa County was the first county to take up the programme in September 2014 and served milk to over 35,000 pupils in public nursery and lower classes every school day, according to the regulator.

The first school milk programme started by former president Daniel Arap Moi covered 4.3 million pupils in 11,000 public primary schools across the country.

The board is seeking to replicate the government- funded school milk programme popularly known as maziwa ya Nyayo that was introduced in 1979 and ran for close to 20 years.

A 2020 survey that was conducted through collaboration between Kenya Dairy Board, Tetra Pak and USAID indicated that there was a recorded increment in enrolment over 2000 schools.

The report indicated that Nairobi County reported an increase in enrollment by 55 per cent, Mombasa County (25p percent), Meru County (20 per cent) and Embu County (14 per cent) compared to the counties that have not embraced it.

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