Dairy Board urges State to relaunch school milk plan

By VITALIS KIMUTAI

The Government has been asked to re-introduce school milk programme following the current drought and hunger.

Alice Chesire, a director at Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) said re-introduction of the programme would help stem the rising number of dropouts from schools in drought hit areas.

"Besides the nutritional value of milk will retain children in learning institutions and make them concentrate on their educational endeavours," Mrs Chesire said.

She said thousands of children had dropped out of school in areas that have been ravaged by drought as they join their parents in search of water and food.

Not teach

"There is no way children can concentrate on learning when they have no food and no one is sure where the next meal will come from. Even their teachers can not teach them adequately as they also worry about their families," Chesire said.

She was speaking at Marigat Primary School when she distributed 2,251 cartons containing 48,000 packets of milk to schools in Marigat District, Baringo Central constituency on Tuesday.

The milk distributed was part of a Sh300 million programme sponsored by the Government. She called on the Government to set aside more money for purchase of milk as strategic food reserves so that affected families could benefit from a balanced diet.

Kenya Dairy Board Technical Services Manager Dr Philip Cherono, Marigat DC Saul Moywaywa, District Education Officer Didacus Odhiambo and District Office one Obwocha Bobwocha accompanied Chesire.