Learners dropping out of school to search food

The biting drought ravaging parts of Kajiado Central constituency in Kenya's Rift Valley province threatens learning as pupils join their parents in search of food and water.

A local school – the Il Bissil Boarding Primary School – almost closed down its boarding wing for lack of adequate food to feed its pupils. The school, which has a population of 958 pupils, has 415 boarders.

Deputy headteacher Idris Noor says many of the day scholars normally come to school hungry and as such they cannot concentrate in their studies. “But when they come to class, they are normally exhausted and cannot concentrate.”

He says some of his pupils had resorted to eating wild fruits as the effects of the famine hits them hard. His sentiments were supported by Mr Emmanuel Kuraru, the headteacher of Oiti Primary School in the neighbouring Lorngoswa Location who says at least 10 pupils had dropped out of his school due to famine.

The situation is also not any different in Tana River District.

A survey conducted in Kitila, Daba, Waldena, Titila and Kalalani locations on the fringes of  the vast district shows that school children were moving with their parents in the search of food, water and pasture for livestock.