Cost of education in Kenya

Food for Education

School Feeding Programmes in public schools in Kenya have proven to be a key incentive for keeping learners in school, especially in the low-icome and rural areas.

Most public schools in rural areas that have feeding programmes have a community-driven initiative where learners are expected to bring stipulated quantities of maize and beans from home per term.

Acute Famine 

The ongoing drought in the country, which was in 2021 declared a national disaster by former president Uhuru Kenyatta,  has exacerbated food insecurity in most parts of the country affecting 23 counties in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). Millions of Kenyans especially in Nothern Kenya and parts of Rift valley have been facing starvation. By September 2021, government estimates suggested that 1.4 million people were facing starvation, warning that the number could hit 3 million if the March-April short rains failed.

The rains failed and the figures spiked, by March 2022, 3.1 million Kenyans were facing acute starvation. By November 2022, The ongoing acute famine had put 4.5 million Kenyans at risk and left 2.5 million livestock dead.13 counties that include; Marsabit, Wajir, Moyale, Garissa, Turkana, Baringo, Samburu, Tana River, Kajiado and Isiolo are the most affected by the food crisis.

Hunger Crisis in Schools

The food shortage has affected the school feeding programmes and learners are no longer getting food in school, which has seen alarming rates of absenteeism and drop-outs altogether and a growing crisis that the local media often refer to as “drought brides” on local headlines, in reference to the high number of girls who drop out of school and get married off whenever famine bites especially among communities in Northern Kenya as parents marry off their teenage daughters to older men in exchange for money and livestock. 

According to Kimer, a parent at Siekei primary school in Kajiado County, which is one of the many schools in the drought-stricken counties where children are going from dusk to dawn without meals, the current drought is the worst he has seen to date.

“I am 54 years now, I have lived in this area all my life but I have never seen anything like this before. It is bad! The children here no longer get any meals in schools since the community has no food left to bring to school and we have children who walk for up to two hours from home to school and back,” he said during a food donation exercise in the school courtesy of the Mbegu Trust Foundation. 

According to the school’s deputy head teacher, Felister Isanda, when there is drought there is also a high rate of drop-out.

“On a normal day our school’s capacity is 560 but because of the drought and hunger crisis, we are left with barely 300 learners. Those who drop out are sometimes tasked with herding as water becomes scarce and families have to move further away from the homes to look for pasture for their livestock, for girls some are married off while others simply don’t have the energy left to walk to school,” she said.

Food for Education

“When we don’t have food in school, we encourage the students to bring packed lunch from home, unfortunately only a handful can afford to. We have had cases of students collapsing in school due to hunger. Some go for even three days without food and you can see it and the teachers have to contribute and buy food for those that are in extremely dire situations” she said.