On May 14, 2024, one week before his historic visit to the US, President William Ruto hosted US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman and students from the Harvard Business School at State House, Nairobi. The meeting covered topics such as climate change, the economy, technology and education. When addressing the effects of climate change on the economy due to drought, Ruto claimed that the government in 2023 adjusted the budget to feed an additional 4 million pupils compared to the previous year.
“Last year we had to adjust our budget because we had to feed an extra 4 million kids in school. We had to step up from feeding 1.5 million kids to give them a meal in school, we had to go to 5.5 million kids – President William Ruto
Sh1.96 billion was added to the School Feeding Programme in March 2023, during a severe drought that gripped parts of Kenya, to feed learners in the affected counties.
Background
Ruto’s remarks preceded public outrage over the government’s planned scrapping of the School Feeding Programme in the Treasury’s 2024/25 Budget. The programme was however reinstated by the National Assembly’s Education committee, allocating Ksh2 billion in the financial year starting July 1, 2024.
Verification
The School Feeding Programme provides a hot meal to pupils in public primary schools in parts of Kenya. it was introduced in 1980 by the Government of Kenya and the World Food Programme to address the needs of learners facing food insecurity. An audit report of the School Meals Programme 2023 stated that as of August 2022, at least 1.5 million students were given mid-day meals. A more recent Education Sector Report reported that in the 2022/23 financial year, 2.3 million learners were enrolled in the feeding programme.
According to the Controller of Budget (COB) report for 2022/23, Ksh4.08 billion was spent on primary school nutrition and meals. The School Feeding Programme, now under the National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya, was allocated Ksh4.93 billion in the current 2023/24 financial year according to the COB’s 2023/24 budget estimates for the six months between 1st July to 31st December 2023. Before the 2023/24 financial year (current), the programme was handled directly by the State Department for Early Learning and Basic Education.
Therefore, the increase in allocation that President Ruto claimed was indeed TRUE.
Figures showing data of the School Meals Programme in the 2023/24 financial year are yet to be published by the Treasury oMinistry of Education at the time of this publication.
President Ruto’s claim that the government fed 5.5 million pupils is INCONCLUSIVE.
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