By: Emily Mikwa
The Kisumu County Government’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Team recently paid a courtesy call to the Principal Secretary for Gender and Children Services, CPA Caren Ageng’o, at her office in the NSSF building, Nairobi.
Multi-Sectoral Nutrition (MSN) governance has been hailed as an effective mechanism to reduce undernutrition.
The County Government of Kisumu, under the leadership of H.E. Prof. Peter Anyang Nyong’o, has successfully established an MSN Coordination structure as a critical governance component for both nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.
Through this cohesive approach, Kisumu has realized positive nutrition outcomes, as evidenced in the latest Kenya Health Demographic Survey (2024).
To cement this success, the team, led by the CECMs Hon. Kenneth Onyango (Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock, Fisheries and Blue Economy) and his counterpart from Education, Hon. John Awiti, alongside Chief Officers and other Senior Officials from the State Department of Children Services, held a successful meeting geared towards harnessing the much-needed synergy.
Key deliberations included:
The relaunch of the 4K clubs in schools.
The establishment of 35 kitchen gardens across the 35 wards in Kisumu.
The upscaling of the Baby Friendly Community Initiatives (BFCI).
Enhanced linkages of ECDE centres to health facilities, among other critical actions.
As a way forward, plans are underway to have the National Nutrition Champion (from the Office of the First Lady) grace a follow-up launch of these initiatives in Kisumu within the next month as part of strengthening the Kisumu MSN efforts.
