President William Ruto has set the first term of 2027 as the target for the launch of a national school meals programme, directing government agencies to prepare a framework that will guide the expansion of feeding programmes across the country.
The plan is expected to benefit learners from lower primary, upper primary and junior secondary schools, with the government linking the programme to its wider efforts to protect poor and vulnerable households from the effects of poverty and food insecurity.
Ruto issued the directive on Tuesday during the opening of the Fourth Kenya Social Protection Conference at the Kenya School of Government in Kabete, Nairobi.
His speech was delivered by Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua.
Ruto said the government needed to move away from separate approaches to school feeding and work towards a national system that can be expanded and sustained.
“Fragmented approaches to school feeding have also constrained our capacity to deliver impact and scale and sustainable sustainability required by national aspirations,” he said.
“Therefore, I commit my government to the progressive establishment of a national schools needs programme.”
The President directed the Ministry of Education to work with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the National Treasury and other relevant agencies to put in place the systems needed before the programme begins.
“I further direct the Ministry of Education, working in close collaboration with the Labour and Social Protection, the National Treasury, and other relevant stakeholders to develop the policy, financing, governance and implementation framework required for a first national rollout commencing in the first school term of 2027,” he said.
While Ruto referred to a national rollout in the 47 counties, he did not specify whether the programme would automatically cover every school across the country.
The planned expansion comes as the government seeks to increase the number of learners receiving school meals from the current 2.6 million to 10 million by 2030.
Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale disclosed the target days earlier while representing Ruto at a high-level child survival and nutrition meeting in New York.
The 10 million target was initially announced by the government in 2024. The latest announcement, however, places the start of the wider national programme in the first school term of 2027.
At present, government-supported school feeding mainly serves vulnerable learners, particularly children living in arid and semi-arid areas as well as communities affected by food insecurity.
The proposed expansion could require substantial funding. An Institute of Public Finance analysis estimated that feeding 10 million learners at an indicative rate of Sh20 per child each school day, over 200 school days, would cost about Sh40 billion annually.
The government has also been pushing the home-grown school meals approach, under which schools source food from farmers in their local areas. The model is intended to connect school feeding with agriculture by creating a market for local farmers through public spending on meals.
Ruto also used the conference to announce plans for the establishment and capitalisation of a Social Protection Fund.
The fund, he said, would help make government assistance to vulnerable Kenyans more predictable.
He said the country needed a system that could help families cope with poverty, disability, old age and climate-related shocks.