Members of the Senate Committee on Education grilled Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu on Tuesday, November 22, seeking details about a Ksh800 million academy feeding program funded by his ministry.
In his defense, Machogu stated that the entire quantum was used to supply food to seminaries throughout the country.
He went on to say that Ksh457 million was spent on rice, Ksh115 million on beans, and Ksh43 million on vegetable oil. Other charges listed by the CS include Ksh2 million spent on salt.
“ It compromises of rice worth Ksh457 million, beans worth Ksh115 million, vegetable oil worth Ksh43 million and salt worth Ksh2 million for the last one month in the ten counties, ” he told the commission.
According to Machogu, the finances were distributed to the sub-county education directors, who were assigned with overseeing the program’s perpetration in collaboration with county officers.
Still, MPs raised enterprises about the delicacy of the CS’s report, despite claims by some lawgivers that the program didn’t live in their sections.
Nominated MP Peris Tobiko stated that she had yet to see substantiation of the program’s perpetration in her county, as mentioned by the CS.
Her sentiments were echoed by fellow nominated Senator Margret Kamar, who demanded further clarity on the plan’s effectiveness.
She also refocused out that counties linked as the hardest hit by the ongoing failure were left off the list of heirs.
“ I’m also veritably sceptical because your list doesn’t show if the seminaries got the food, this is a list showing the conditions of the academy, can you tell us where the taxpayers ’ plutocrat has gone, ” she stated.
“ All the Legislators have said that this program isn’t in their counties, you’re averring it’s passing, but we aren’t seeing it on the ground, where is it? ”
The academy feeding program was enforced by the CS as part of a slew of measures to combat the country’s raging failure. While launching the program, CS Machogu stated that it was the result of a collaboration between colorful stakeholders in the country.
