Dishi na County: Who else is eating? Nancy Gathungu asks Sakaja
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja during an interview at his office in Nairobi on April 26, 2024.
What you need to know:
- Ms Janet Ouko of the Tunza Mtoto Coalition, who has been pushing for transparency in the county, argued that school feeding is a project that should be undertaken by the national government.
- “The funds should be spent on upgrading the existing early childhood development centres since that is the mandate of the county government. If you go to most of them, they are overcrowded and in a poor state. The problem with leaders is that they want to do what is popular instead of doing the right thing,” Ms Ouko said.
The auditor-general has raised questions surrounding the operation of the school feeding programme in Nairobi City County, dubbed Dishi na County.
In the 2023/2024 report that has been tabled before the County Assembly, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said that her office could not trace how the city county spent Sh145,725,000 which was donated by the French Embassy in Kenya to support the programme.
In September 2023, French Minister of State for Development, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, announced the donation when she joined Governor Johnson Sakaja to feed children at Olympic Primary School, Kibra.
However, according to the report, the donation was made directly to the Food for Education account, a non-profit organisation that has partnered with the county to implement the initiative.
“The audit could not ascertain the accountability for these funds. In addition, there were no established measures by the County Executive regarding the management of the donations received, as there were no guidelines in place for handling such donations,” the report reads.
Further, the report states that there is no agreement or memorandum of understanding signed between the county and the organisation.
“The audit could not establish how the company was engaged to provide the services.”
The county contracted the company to feed learners in Nairobi public schools at a rate of Sh25 per plate.
According to the report, Food for Education invoiced a total of Sh345,961,676 at the rate of Sh25 per plate and was paid by the county during the 2023/2024 Financial Year Sh262, 262, 167.
It is a requirement that each learner pays the company Sh5 directly per plate for the meals, and the county covers the rest (Sh20) to bring the total to Sh25 per plate.
However, the auditor-general revealed that despite the contribution from parents, the county went ahead to pay the company Sh25 per plate instead of Sh20, raising more questions about the contract.
“The county paid an amount of Sh25 for each plate served resulting in the implementor earning an amount of Sh30 per plate instead of the contracted amount of Sh25,” the report reads.
The report comes on the backdrop of similar questions raised by the County Health Committee last year when the Health County Executive Committee Member Susan Silantoi appeared alongside Food for Education CEO Wawira Njiru and was not able to explain how the donations were being handled.
Ms Silantoi assured the committee that the executive would table the policy framework of how the initiative was being implemented, a promise that is yet to be fulfilled to date.
The committee chaired by Mountain View MCA Maurice Ochieng also faulted Mr Sakaja for lack of regulations to guide the implementation of the programme.
“It is difficult that the programme is being operated in a vacuum without clear guidelines on structures. This makes it difficult to audit the use of public funds allocated for the project,” Mr Ochieng told Nation.Africa.
A total of Sh1.7 billion was allocated to the programme during the 2023/2024 Financial Year and was recently allocated Sh400 million in the supplementary budget for the financial year 2024-2025.
Ms Janet Ouko of the Tunza Mtoto Coalition, who has been pushing for transparency in the county, argued that school feeding is a project that should be undertaken by the national government.
“The funds should be spent on upgrading the existing early childhood development centres since that is the mandate of the county government. If you go to most of them, they are overcrowded and in a poor state. The problem with leaders is that they want to do what is popular instead of doing the right thing,” Ms Ouko said.