SAKAJA DELIVERS ON CHAPATI MACHINE PROMISE

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has delivered on his administration’s promise to introduce chapati to the Dishi na County school feeding programme, with a new commercial machine now operational at the Toi Primary Kitchen in Kibra.

The machine can produce up to 2,000 chapatis an hour, giving the county additional capacity to incorporate the popular meal into its school feeding schedule without interfering with the programme’s wider operations.

Speaking during the rollout, Sakaja said the county had chosen to focus on delivery rather than promises, noting that the machine was already up and running.

“We don’t do politics with the lives of the people that we serve. We don’t promise to be heard; we promise to deliver. We have been able to secure the machine and it is up and running,” Sakaja said.

Chapatis will not be served to every participating school on the same day. Instead, the county has prepared a rotational timetable to ensure the meal reaches schools according to the existing Dishi na County feeding calendar.

The programme currently serves more than 324,000 learners in 230 public schools spread across Nairobi’s 17 sub-counties.

Sakaja said the size of the programme made proper planning essential, particularly as the county works to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of pupils.

"We have 324,000 pupils to serve. A timetable has been put in place and each school will have its day to enjoy chapatis,” he said.

The chapati rollout comes as Dishi na County approaches another major milestone. Since its launch three years ago, the programme has served more than 85 million hot meals and is expected to cross the 100 million-meal mark during the current school term.

Learners pay Sh5 for a subsidised hot meal, with Nairobi County and its partners shouldering much of the cost of running the programme.

Nairobi County Executive Committee Member for Health and Nutrition Suzanne Silantoi said the significance of the programme could not be measured by meal figures alone, pointing to the number of children who now have access to food while at school.

“We are approaching 100 million meals served, but beyond that number are hundreds of thousands of children who can count on a hot meal every school day,” Silantoi said.

Toi Primary Kitchen manager, Angela Muchai said the addition of chapati had already generated excitement among learners.

“The kids are so happy to have chapati included in their meals. You can really see the joy when they receive their food,” Muchai said.

The county’s machine should, however, not be confused with the separate mega-machine President William Ruto previously promised. Ruto had pledged a machine capable of producing up to one million chapatis daily after pupils requested that chapati be added to the school menu.

Sakaja has indicated that the presidential commitment remains on course, while the county’s current equipment provides an immediate solution as Dishi na County expands its menu.

The governor also said the programme’s next frontier would be public day secondary schools, alongside efforts to develop a model for reaching learners in schools serving informal settlements.

For now, the arrival of the chapati-making machine marks another step in the county’s effort to expand Dishi na County while maintaining a feeding system that serves more than 324,000 Nairobi learners.