Saboti Member of Parliament Caleb Amisi has slammed Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja for requesting a chapati-making machine from President William Ruto.
The lawmaker, on Tuesday, March 11, in a statement on his official X account, said that Sakaja should be more focused on making more substantial requests to the head of state during his development tour in the country's capital this week.
Amisi said that the governor should be at the forefront to call out for more infrastructural developments such as underground speed train systems, overpass roads, and water points across residences.
"A governor of the biggest regional capital city, whose GDP is more or equal to about 15 African countries, boasts of chapatis as his main economic activity and legacy project," he said.
"He even requests the head of state to forget the underground speed train system, overpass roads around the city, and water points across residences, but instead to buy him a brand new monstrous gigantic chapati-making machine to help him make 1,000,000 chapatis per minute; and the voters and citizens still line up the streets to cheer him for such a revolutionary idea since Vasco da Gama traversed the Cape of Good Hope," he added.
The governor, who had accompanied Ruto during his Nairobi County development tour, requested the president for the chapati machine to enhance the Dishi na county programme in Nairobi, which currently feeds thousands of learners in the city.
“Do you like Dishi Na County? How is the food, and what do you want us to add? Chapati? Let me talk to the president so he can get us a chapati-making machine,” he said while addressing students at St Teresa Girls High School.
The president, on his hand, pledged to fulfil the governor's request to support and expand the program.
“I have heard about it, and I will buy it. Governor, find the machine that can produce chapatis in large numbers, and we will incorporate it into Dishi na County,” Ruto said.
Launched on June 19, 2023, Dishi na County is a school feeding program meant to mitigate the issue of food shortages in schools to enhance student health and improve academic performance.
The programme mainly centers around the construction of centralised kitchens in each of Nairobi's 17 sub-counties, where meals are prepared and distributed in schools, effectively ensuring students receive balanced meals daily.
So far, over 316,000 learners from more than 230 schools across all 17 sub-counties are benefiting from the Dishi na County program, which has already served its 30,000,000th meal.
