Rachel, Joyce resurface with projects despite budget cuts

First Lady Rachel Ruto and the Spouse of the Deputy President, Dr Joyce Kithure, have hit the road running in advocacy campaigns aimed at improving education. Notably, the two ladies are trained teachers, with Joyce currently working at the University of Nairobi as a chemistry lecturer.

The new wave of projects is happening despite funding for the two offices being abolished at the height of last year’s anti-Finance Bill demonstrations mounted by Gen Z.

While Rachel is going head-on against hunger among children, Joyce wants to ‘save communities using science’.

Rachel’s campaign, “Feed One End Hunger”, addresses hunger issues ‘that prevent children from accessing education’.

“The initiative seeks to bridge the gap by establishing kitchen gardens in all public primary schools,” she said during the International Women’s Day celebrations in Homa Bay county.

The programme seeks to empower public primary schools to grow food. It is reported that at least 500 households get vegetables twice a week from the first kitchen garden established by Rachel at State House, Nairobi.

“The Feed One End Hunger initiative is built on three critical pillars - child provision, participation, and protection. The goal is to address hunger that prevents children from accessing education and support our government policy of 100 per cent enrollment and retention,” the First Lady said.

Also on the First Lady’s drive is a pilot school milk programme launched in Migori county.

It will benefit 11 schools in five counties across Kenya. Children in Nakuru, Kitui, Kilifi and West Pokot schools will also get milk under the project supported by the Kenya Dairy Board and various processors, including New KCC Limited, Meru Central Dairy Union and Dyevani Foods.

“A packet of milk twice every week will boost concentration, improve performance and increase school enrollment and retention,” the project brief reads in part.

The First Lady is leading the advocacy for allocating budgets for a national school milk programme that will benefit every child in public primary schools.

This initiative would have a tremendous economic trickledown, noting that one cow creates at least 14 direct and indirect jobs.

Joyce on the other hand, is driving a project dubbed “SAVE Communities”, acronyms that stand for “Science Adding Value to the Environment and the Community”. 

The University of Nairobi chemistry don’s project seeks to address some of the challenges communities face from a scientific perspective.

“The solutions to challenges communities face can be provided by the collective knowledge and skills of all Kenyans in the STEM space,” she said.

Under the SAVE project, she is keen on addressing and intervening in water crisis, environmental pollution and access to clean energy.

“Despite the fact that Kenya has made significant progress in expanding electricity access through grid connections and renewable energy projects, challenges remain, particularly in rural and marginalised areas,” Joyce said.

She is also seeking to intervene in climate change and adaptation and empower communities to embrace modern farming.

Joyce has also set to promote modern farming practices in unconventional spaces such as schools, churches, towns and cities.

This is a joint area of interest with Rachel, who is working with the State Department of Agriculture to support women in urban and rural areas in having kitchen gardens.

A brief from her office says Joyce will discuss science, mathematics and quality nutrition for school children.

Her speech further detailed her plan to promote value addition to Kenya’s produce, “to increase the worth of our raw materials and farm produce”.

“The achievement of this project requires the collective effort of all of us. I would like to invite you all to achieve the objective of this project,” Joyce said.

Based on her chemistry background, she believes the projects would “solve problems, create opportunities and inspire generations”.

The President and his deputy’s spouses are national figures, a position that presents a considerable demand for visibility in what they do.

Criticism abounds on how Rachel and Joyce manage their increasingly visible activities without official budgetary allocations.

President William Ruto, responding to the demands of the anti-government agitators, directed that the office’s budget be redirected to other pressing needs starting July last year.

Before the budget cuts, the First Lady had a 15-year continuous programme to empower women economically through table banking.

She further launched a strategy to plant and grow 500 million trees in support of the nation’s goal to plant 15 billion trees by 2032.

The First Lady also initiated the annual First Lady Environmental Awards Scheme, whose inaugural winners were awarded on 10 October last year.

The office of the spouse of the deputy president – then held by Dorcas Gachagua, intended to “screen 12,000 boys for drugs and substance abuse”.

It also planned to hold camps in 18 counties to mentor the boys and train 5,000 boys and 1000 widows on livelihood opportunities.

Before the budget glitch, the office intended to support 40 widows’ groups and train youth groups on sustainable ventures.

However, opinion remains divided on whether the activities should be scrutinised when no statutory budgets have been allocated.

“We would be more concerned if the annulled budgets were reinstated,” Muranga Senator Joe Nyutu told the Star.

“They (first lady and second lady) could be out and about for political optics, which is okay,” the lawmaker, a staunch ally of impeached DP Rigathi Gachagua, said.

Budget books show that the spouses remain unfunded by the state and may only benefit from their husbands’ generosity.

Before Gen Z protests scuttled plans, the First Lady’s office was due to receive Sh697 million, an increase of more than Sh100 million from the previous year’s allocation.

The office of the spouse of the deputy president was due to receive Sh557 million before the budget cuts ensued.

Despite not receiving budgetary support, the First Lady says the expanded kitchen garden programme will benefit more than 10,000 public primary schools, but with a change of tune to collaborate with state departments, specifically the State Department of Agriculture.

The Star further established that the First Lady had more than 500 fruit gardens in schools, with a plan to grow 1,500 this year.

More than 50 teachers have also been trained as champions in kitchen gardens and are expected to train their colleagues in the same.

The First Lady’s office says it is in the process of helping women access finance to purchase subsidised water tanks and farm inputs.

An insider told the Star that the offices rely on donors, collaborations with Government entities, well-wishers and corporate p