President William Ruto on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, promised to buy a chapati-making machine as part of his efforts aimed at boosting Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s Dishi na County school feeding programme.
Ruto’s pledge comes after pupils at St Teresa Primary School in Mathare, voiced their desire to have chapati on their menu after Sakaja’s inquiry on menu items suggestions.
However, after the mention of chapati, Sakaja voiced concern that it would be challenging to prepare chapatis for over 300,000 pupils and pleaded with the president to provide a chapati-making machine.
“Watoto wangu mnapatanga ndizi kila siku? (My children do you get bananas everyday)” Sakaja asked to which the students enthustiastically replied saying; “Yes.”
“Niongeze nini? (What should I add?)” Sakaja continued, to which the happy pupils replied saying; “Chapati.”
“Mnajua hio chapati… watoto 300,000 wanalishwa Nairobi, ntaomba rais anisaidie na machine ya kutengeza chapo,” Sakaja added.
Immediately after his statement, Ruto intervened noting that he will foresee that the program receives a chapati-making machine, which he says will produce 1 million chapatis daily, once he is aware on where to purchase them.
“Governor ameniuliza ya kwamba tuongeze chapati katika dishi ya Nairobi na ninunue machine ya kutengeza chapo, na nimekubali kua nitamnunulia machine ya kutengeza chapo, sasa gavana tafuta mahali pa kununua machine ya kutengeza chapo milioni moja,” Ruto said amid cheers from the pupils.
Loosely translates to;
“The governor has asked that we add chapati in the Dishi ya Nairobi initiative, I have agreed to purchase the machine, it is now the work of the governor to locate a shop we can purchase them from do that we can be able to make one million chapatis.”
More promises
Additionally the president who is on his second day tour of the Nairobi County promised to build 35 classrooms. While announcing the plan, the Head of State noted that the intitiave will go a long way in ensuring that students are well accommodated during learning sessions.
“I want to make sure that each one of you has a place to sit in class. Apart from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), we have an additional Ksh1 billion to build more classrooms in Nairobi County,” Ruto said.
“I want to offer that I will instruct people to design the 10 classrooms after which I will personally build the 10 classrooms here at St Teresa’s Girls Secondary School,” he added.
“I will also build five additional classrooms at the St Teresa’s Primary School.”
Launched on June 19, 2023, the Dishi na County program aims to encourage school attendance and improve academic performance by addressing classroom hunger.
The initiative involves constructing centralized kitchens, called Giga Kitchens, in each of Nairobi’s 17 sub-counties.
These kitchens prepare meals distributed to schools with the pupils contributing Ksh5 per meal through a tap-to-eat system.
