Pupils in public schools in Nairobi will soon be enjoying free lunch in an attempt to keep them in class and improve learning outcomes. This was among pledges made by Governor Johnson Sakaja during the first sitting of Nairobi County Assembly.
To actualise the feeding programme, Sakaja said his administration would construct central kitchens where foods would be distributed to public schools.
"It is embarrassing that there are more children out of school per capita in Nairobi due to poverty and hunger than in drought-ravaged counties," Sakaja said.
"We are thus rolling out a programme to construct central kitchens in every sub-county where food will be cooked and distributed to nearby schools," he said. He said the programme was already working in Dagoretti South and encouraged assembly members to visit Mukarara Primary School to witness its implementation.
He thanked ward reps who have offered to work with him through the National Government Constituency Development Fund in constructing some of the kitchens.
Sakaja said his administration would improve the state of healthcare in Nairobi, saying the condition of the hospitals was wanting.
He said his first executive actions was to set up a health reforms taskforce whose terms of reference are to engage county staff, members of the public and stakeholders on access to quality health services.
"I look forward to engaging with the health committee of the assembly to make sure that the recommendations of the taskforce, once concluded, are implemented," Sakaja said.
To curb theft by fraudsters posing as county officers, Sakaja said the county had fully shifted to a new revamped system of revenue administration.
This, he said, would boost collection of revenue in the city, saying the county was not hitting target despite being a capital city.
"We are now collecting Sh9 billion a year in own source revenue when studies, including a recent one from the Commission on Revenue Allocation, have shown that we can collect Sh67 billion," he said.
To curb the garbage menace in the city, Sakaja said his administration was planning to build new collection points that would be gazetted and that there would be a public awareness campaign.
The collection points would be in all the 17-sub-counties and anyone found dumping illegally would face the law, Sakaja said. "A lot of this is uncollected waste from the past. Currently, we are currently working towards collecting over 3,000 tonnes daily," he said.
To sort out the hawkers menace, the county boss said the county had already called on informal traders and other stakeholders for a public participation forum to discuss a solution for hawkers.
He also affirmed the promise to construct 20 markets in the city and that a place had been identified at Gikomba Market to build a fire station to tame unending infernos.
"As part of the measures towards easing the cost and convenience of doing business, we have made progress towards creating a unified single business permit so that traders and SMEs do not have multiple licences for them to trade," he said.
He said the county had started reclaiming grabbed parcels of land including one around City Market.
