Machakos County Government has today launched a feeding program to keep ECDE children in school.

Speaking while flagging off the food distribution exercise in her office, Governor Wavinya Ndeti said 1,160 public ECDE centres spread in the 40 wards of Machakos County will benefit from the program.

35,000 children currently in PP1 and PP2 levels will be fed during the initiative dubbed ‘Chakula Tumboni, Masomo Kichwani’.

Wavinya said her administration had so far spent Ksh.30 million on the school feeding program and that early childhood was a crucial stage in a child’s physical, intellectual, emotional and social development.

“We have seen time and again how various types of school feeding programmes boost the enrolment of children to early childhood education. Education is an important aspect in the realization of Vision 2030 in our country, and also in achieving my ‘Chakula Mezani, Pesa Mfukoni,’ dream for Machakos County.”

“For our young children, it is ‘Chakula Tumboni, Masomo Kichwani’ now that we all know learning on an empty stomach is very difficult,” she added.

Wavinya expressed her government’s commitment to invest substantially in the expansion of the physical infrastructure facilities through progressive budgetary allocations to finance gradual construction of ECDE classrooms.

She said the efforts were already bearing fruit though they were still far from achieving their desired target of having at least two classrooms in each ECDE facility.

Additionally, her administration will set aside an additional budget in the next financial year to facilitate the important mission of promoting basic learning in the county.

The governor called on the National Government, private sector, parents, well-wishers alongside other stakeholders to join hands with her administration to ensure they facilitate better ECDE learning programs and environment for