President William Ruto has announced that his government will allocate Sh1 billion to Nairobi County to help build additional classrooms aimed at improving the city's education infrastructure.
Speaking during a visit to St. Teresa Girls Secondary School in Mathare on Tuesday, Ruto explained that this funding is over and above the resources provided by the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
“We have too many children in informal schools that do not have requisite facilities to make sure our children get requisite education. That is why we have agreed with your leaders that other than CDF we have added Sh1 billion to build additional classes in Nairobi,” the President said.
The new classrooms will help address the shortage of educational facilities in the city, particularly for the many children attending informal schools.
As part of his contribution, President Ruto also pledged to support the construction of 10 new classrooms at St. Teresa Girls Secondary and five additional classrooms at St. Teresa Primary School. This will benefit over 1,200 students at the two institutions.
“We’ll construct 10 more classes at St Teresa GIRLS and five new classes at St Teresa primary to support the over 1,200 children who school there,” Ruto added.
In addition to the classroom construction, the President donated Sh5 million to help equip a new girls’ dormitory at St. Teresa Girls Secondary School.
Ruto emphasized the importance of providing all children in Nairobi with quality education, ensuring the city plays its rightful role in advancing development. “Nairobi must take its rightful place in terms of development and education by ensuring all children have access to quality education,” he said.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, who accompanied Ruto on the visit, expressed his commitment to supporting the education sector.
Sakaja assured that students would receive their education without disruption and spoke about the county’s "Dishi na County" program, which aims to improve school meals.
He also requested support from President Ruto to acquire a machine capable of producing one million chapatis to feed the children as part of the school feeding initiative.
At the same time, the President also promised to purchase a chapati-making machine that can produce a million units daily to boost the city’s ‘Dishi Na County’ school feeding program.
“Over 300,000 children are benefiting from the program; that means we need a machine to produce a million chapatis every day. I have asked the President for it,” the county boss said in response.
President Ruto agreed to the request, telling students, “I have agreed to buy a chapati-making machine. Governor, your work is now finding where to buy it.”