NAIROBI: Christmas will come early for children from poor backgrounds in Turkana and Laikipia Counties following the launch of a Sh500 million nutrition food supplement programme jointly funded by United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and Japan.
The distribution of the supplements to the two counties was officially flagged off Thursday, at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) headquarters in Embakasi Nairobi.
Kemsa will be fully in-charge of the supply chain systems for the nutrition commodities, which will see the authority store, transport and distribute the food products to malnourished children at health facilities in the two regions.
Pirkko Heinonen, the Unicef Kenya representative, said the high number of children suffering from acute malnutrition in the two counties prompted them to provide intervention in conjunction with other partners.
She said they have confidence in Kemsa’s logistical system, noting that they are hopeful the nutrition commodities would reach the intended users without any hitches.
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“We have commissioned Kemsa to manage the supply chain since it has skilled human resources dedicated to logistics management responsibilities ,” said Ms Heinonen.
“With the working arrangement with the authority, there will be no stock-out of the nutrition supplements for severely malnourished children in hospitals in the two targeted counties,” she added.
According to Heinonen, each year there are an estimated 60,000 children with acute malnutrition in the country. She said each child with the condition requires a standard 14kgs of the nutrition commodities.
