County Rolls Out Nutrition Program to Support Learners in Informal Settlements

The Dishi na County school-feeding initiative has entered a new phase, with officials announcing plans to extend the programme into informal settlement schools across Nairobi. The expansion means children attending informal schools—often overlooked in mainstream nutrition programmes—will now benefit from daily hot meals as the county government adapts its framework to reach private and non-formal learning centres.
Since the programme’s launch in August 2023, Dishi na County has already delivered more than 50 million meals to over 316,000 learners in public primary and ECDE centres across all 17 sub-counties of Nairobi. Meals are prepared in 17 centralised kitchens and distributed daily to participating schools. Governor Johnson Sakaja told the Senate’s Education Committee that the next step will be to integrate informal settlement schools, starting by linking them to nearby public schools with existing kitchens as interim hubs.
Reactions have been overwhelmingly positive from educators, parents and nutrition experts alike. Teachers noted improved attendance and concentration among pupils who regularly eat at school; one head-teacher stated that lethargy and drop-outs linked to hunger appear to be receding. Nutrition specialists emphasised that the move into informal settlement schools addresses a crucial equity gap—many children in non-public-school settings previously had no access to such programmes. However, budget constraints and infrastructure gaps remain major hurdles, as adding an estimated 69 more kitchens may be necessary to cover all schools.
Looking ahead, county officials are exploring public–private partnerships, community kitchen models and mobile feeding units to accelerate rollout. Monitoring and evaluation systems are also being established to track the programme’s impact on attendance, performance and nutrition indicators in underserved schools. If effectively scaled, Dishi na County could serve as a blueprint not only for inclusive feeding in Nairobi but for other counties seeking to link nutrition and education outcomes in Kenyan urban contexts.