'We acted in haste,' MP Baya faults suspension of Kilifi feeding programme over Hindu prayer

By Victor Denje, 

Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament Owen Baya, has criticized the Department of Education for suspending the Krishna Foundation’s food distribution project for 17 schools in Ganze, Kilifi County, after a video went viral showing students chanting Hindu prayers before eating the food.

Speaking during an interview with a radio station in Kilifi on Monday, Baya said the move will affect a large number of students who have been relying on the aid due to the famine that has gripped the area since 2019.

Baya, who is also the Kilifi North MP, has dismissed the videos, which he says were taken to achieve a hidden agenda, which has cost thousands of students in the area their lives.

"If you look at the video, the teacher did say the learners have been directed to do so. He said ‘the donors have their prayer, a bible, and their God’," said Baya. 

Baya argued that a video of a learner reciting the Krishna prayer was staged. 

The suspension came after a viral clip emerged showing pupils compelled to pray as if they were members of the donor's religion before receiving relief food.

The footage, which stirred public outrage both locally and nationally, showed hundreds of pupils from more than 17 schools seemingly making Hindu prayers before being served with meals.

In some schools, head teachers are captured on camera directing learners to recite Hindu prayers as part of the new routine before meals.

Kilifi County Commissioner Josephat Kibiwott said that authorities have confiscated several Hindu material from the affected schools as investigations continue.