Bowls of free food keep children in schools

• Lunch-time queues get longer in the wake of biting hunger and ravaging drought

Over 100,000 more children will join the school feeding programme this month, raising their number to 1.2 million as the effects of the country’s worst drought in decades continue to ravage thousands of rural households.

With food prices shooting through the roof and no reprieve in sight, most of these youngsters are faced with a devil of a choice: to go back to school and starve through the lessons, or hit the job market and eke out a living in the worst of degrading situations.

Out of school

According to a report by a lobby group, more than 500,000 children have been forced out of school by hunger, and thousands more risk joining them if nothing is done.

In the Rift Valley, for example, rain failure has forced families to scavenge for food in the most unlikely places, including quarries, and most consider themselves lucky if they have a single meal in a day.

In Eastern and North Eastern provinces, and in pastoral communities in particular, children have abandoned school in droves and left their homes in search of water and pasture for their animals.

The school feeding programme under the World Food Programme, comes just a week after the start of the Third Term, at the end of which pupils sit their national exams.

However, the plan is likely to be strained even further by the millions of households across the country that will rely on food donations until harvests are made from the coming rains.

Estimates indicate that a total of 3.8 million Kenyans will need food assistance in the next six months, a sharp increase from the 2.6 million currently receiving food rations from the WFP.

Ms Rose Ogolla, the WFP public information officer, told the Daily Nation that recorded cases of malnutrition among children have already surpassed the World Health Organisation threshold, and that more than 50 per cent of school-age children risk falling victim to the condition.

“This is alarming,” she said, adding that pre-emptive measures need to be taken to save the situation. During the just-ended August holiday, children in arid and semi-arid areas had to remain in school in order to benefit from the feeding programme.

The government used this as a way of ensuring the children remained hooked to education despite the effects of drought and spiralling food prices.

“Sending them home for the holiday is not tenable right now as this will expose them to hunger and malnutrition, negating the gains we have made in education and nutrition,” said Education minister Sam Ongeri in defence of the stay-at-school programme.

The government allocated Sh1.6 billion to the scheme this financial year, the bulk of which has already been spent.

Programme