School feeding should be a constitutional right
Students from Nakuru Day Senior School are served with their lunch at the institution on February 3, 2026.
Kenya should enact a School Feeding Act to guarantee every learner access to school meals as a right, rather than leave provision vulnerable to annual budget decisions and administrative discretion.
The Constitution provides a strong foundation. Article 43(1)(c) guarantees every person the right to be free from hunger and to adequate food of acceptable quality, while Article 53(1)(c) recognises every child’s right to basic nutrition. These provisions support the case for a legal framework that makes school feeding a sustained state responsibility.
Further guidance
Kenya has made progress through the National School Meals Policy, now under Cabinet review, county-level feeding policies for devolved early childhood development education, and the School Health Policy, also under review.
The Kenya School Menu Guidelines, finalised in 2026, provide further guidance on planning nutritious school meals.
But policies alone may not guarantee continuity or predictable financing. The Basic Education Act also recognises every child’s right to basic nutrition.
Yet school feeding remains exposed to fiscal pressures and changing priorities.
The national programme currently reaches about 3.2 million learners, many from food-insecure households. The 2026/27 national budget allocates Sh3 billion to school feeding, against an estimated annual requirement of about Sh8.6 billion for all targeted learners.
The funding gap risks reducing the number and quality of meals and disrupting provision.
For vulnerable children, school meals are more than a response to hunger. Evidence shows they can support attendance, concentration, retention and learning while easing household costs and encouraging enrolment. Home-grown programmes can also create reliable markets for smallholder farmers and strengthen local food systems.
International experience reinforces the case. Brazil, India and South Africa have embedded school nutrition in legal or constitutional frameworks, helping protect programmes from political and fiscal fluctuations while strengthening accountability.
Disruption
Kenya can draw on these examples while designing a framework suited to its own constitutional order, devolved system and agricultural economy.
Kenya’s experience, from Maziwa ya Nyayo to national and county initiatives, shows that school feeding is not a new idea.
The priority now should be to secure its gains through law and protect it from abrupt disruption.
A School Feeding Act could establish school meals as a protected entitlement, provide predictable financing, clarify institutional responsibilities and strengthen accountability.
It could also define cooperation between national and county governments while supporting home-grown procurement.
Most importantly, legislation would help ensure that access to a nutritious school meal is not determined by the priorities of a single budget cycle.
Kenya has spent decades building experience and evidence. The next step is to turn that experience into a durable national commitment.
Constitutional rights to food, nutrition and education must be experienced in children’s daily lives.
For millions of learners, that protection can begin with a nutritious meal at school.
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Stella Kimani is the Senior Manager, Policy at Food4Education.
