Bomet begins school feeding programme
Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok (left), World Vision Bomet and Narok counties cluster Manager Mirasine Meiguran after receiving Sh43 million milk processing equipment for Chebunyo Dairies in Chepalungu constituency on February 24, 2021.
The Bomet County government has begun a school feeding programme targeting 53,000 children in the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) institutions.
The programme seeks to address issues of nutrition and retention of learners in the over 500 ECDE centres in the county’s five constituencies – Bomet East, Bomet Central, Chepalungu, Konoin and Sotik.
Prof. Hillary Barchok, said milk supplied to all the ECDE learning institutions will be packaged by the Chebunyo Cooperative milk plant in Chepalungu constituency.
“In the interim, the milk will be supplied by the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) as the Chebunyo dairy plant awaits certification from the Kenya Bureau of Standards and the Kenya Dairy Board among other relevant government departments,” said Prof Barchok.
Devolved government units in the country are in charge of the pre-school units while the basic and higher education is the function of the national government.
A total of 365 ECDE centres have been constructed in Bomet County in the last four years, with an additional 75 expected to be completed before the end of this year. The upgrade is in addition to the semi-permanent ones that have been in place alongside primary schools in the region over the years.
Young learners
“Education of our young learners is an area of great concern to us as a county, and we are determined to go out of our way to lay a good foundation for the children so they can be great people in the future,” said the governor.
He said there was a need for parents to ensure that their children had a strong education foundation. He called on those with children living with various challenges to take them to integrated schools so as to enable them to have equal education like the normal ones.
It is a replica of what used to be supplied to Kenyan learning institutions in the 1980s by former President Daniel Moi’s Kanu regime. The programme was discontinued due to hard economic times the country faced in the 1990s.
Governor Barchok said though the country had put up many infrastructural facilities in the learning institutions that fall under its mandate, there was still a lot that needed to be done to improve the standards of education in the region.
The Chebunyo milk plant was set up at a cost of Sh60 million from the county government of Bomet and the international Non-Governmental institution, the World Vision.
Kenya Power has been asked to connect the plant with a three phase power line to enable it start commercial production in what is expected to raise the earnings of dairy farmers in the region and create employment opportunities.
The county government has rolled out a series of upgrade programes in the dairy sector with subsidies in Artificial Insemination (AI) service and development of pasture – both aimed at improving cattle stock and raising milk production.
Apart from New KCC, Brookeside and Daima dairies are the major buyers of milk produced in the highly agriculturally endowed county that is also known for tea farming.
