The Nairobi City County government has introduced sweeping regulations overhauling the structure, financing and oversight of its school feeding programme in an effort to close long-standing gaps around how the multi-billion-shilling initiative is managed.
The Public Finance Management (Nairobi City County School Feeding Program Fund) Regulations, 2025, tabled before the County Assembly by Majority Leader Peter Imwatok on Tuesday, seeks to establish a dedicated fund and a powerful nine-member board to control procurement to parental contributions and monitoring.
President William Ruto, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja and Nairobi Women Representative Esther Passaris during the Launch of Nairobi County School Feeding Programme at Roysambu Primary School on June 20, 2023.
Photo credit: PCS
The framework drafted by Finance CEC Charles Kerich creates a standalone fund account, sets strict rules on how money is collected and spent, allows the county to retain all receipts and earnings, and introduces a structure for budgeting, reporting, and audit compliance.
The new board, chaired by a governor’s appointee, will approve budgets, review financial statements before submission to the Auditor-General, oversee contractors, set parental cost-sharing rates and enforce transparency across the programme.
The board is made up of a chairperson, the relevant county government minister, two chief officers for finance and nutrition dockets, four members appointed by the county minister, and two national government representatives from the national treasury and the ministry of education and an accounting officer who will administer funds for the program.
Those set to benefit are those in public primary schools only with the board required to vet other specific cases who may want to benefit.
“The beneficiaries of the Fund shall be the learners enrolled in public Early Childhood Education (ECD) centers and primary schools within Nairobi City County; and Learners eligible for or receiving social support as may be determined by the board,” reads the proposed regulations before the county assembly.
Under the new regulations, the parental cost share will be paid to the fund. The contractor, Food for Education, will also be required to report to the board with costs incurred on the project.
“The contractor(s) shall report to the Board Quarterly on the actual costs incurred for meal preparation and distribution, providing detailed records of expenditures related to food procurement kit proving food procurement, kitchen operations, staff, and other relevant expenses,” read the regulations.
The regulations come at a time Dishi na County, the governor’s flagship feeding programme, is under growing scrutiny over how public and donor funds have been handled.
A recent audit shows the county cannot account for Sh145.7 million donated by the French Embassy to support the initiative, with Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu saying her office could not trace how the money was spent or under what framework it was received.
The donation announced in September 2023 at Olympic Primary School in Kibra by France’s Minister of State for Development was routed directly into the account of Food for Education, the private organisation contracted to run the programme.
But the audit found that the county had no guidelines for managing such donations, no agreement with the implementer and no documentation showing how the company was engaged in the first place.
Auditors also questioned payments made to the contractor. Parents are required to pay Sh5 per meal, while the county covers Sh20, bringing the cost per plate to Sh25.
President William Ruto, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki and Nairobi Governor Sakaja Johnson join pupils of Zawadi Comprehensive School, Kamukunji in Nairobi County for lunch during the official opening of the Dishi na County Central Kitchen on March 10, 2025.
Photo credit: PCS
Despite this, the county paid the implementer the full Sh25 per plate — effectively inflating the amount and allowing the organisation to earn Sh30 per meal instead of the contracted figure, according to the report. Food for Education invoiced Sh345.9 million and received Sh262.2 million, but the county struggled to explain the inconsistencies in the payment structure.
The issues mirror concerns raised earlier by the County Assembly’s Health Committee led by Mountain View MCA Maurice Ochieng, which pressed Health CEC Susan Silantoi and Food for Education CEO Wawira Njiru to explain how donations were being handled and why the programme lacked a guiding policy.
The committee warned that the project was running “in a vacuum” without regulations, making it difficult to audit how the Sh1.7 billion allocated in 2023/2024 plus an additional Sh400 million this year was being spent.
