Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has announced that he will pay return bus fare for stranded students in the capital after the government postponed the official school opening dates to next week.

Speaking on Monday, Sakaja admitted that the impromptu directive has left many parents and students stranded and he is willing to help some of those affected around the CBD.

"I have seen a few photos showing some students who are stranded. So when I leave here I will go and pay for their bus fare for their return home. I will also buy them soda so that they have something to eat," he said speaking on Radio Citizen.

He also defended the government's move to make the offhand directive, noting that there is a high probability that Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu also received the instructions at an unprecedented hour.

"You can't say that the minister did not think it through. Maybe there is information he received at night and it is for the better good. Nobody should ever think that the government makes a decision with ill motives it is just that the information they have we don't have," noted Sakaja.

"Let us listen and try to mitigate those factors."

The governor further noted that the food that had already been prepared under the Dishi na County programme will be distributed to camps hosting flood victims.

"There is too much food I even think some of it will be taken to prisons. They are 184,000 plates and those in the camps are 14,000. We have planned the logistics on how that food will be transported even to places where there is need," he noted.

In a midnight communique, CS Machogu announced that learners, who were expected to begin reporting to school on Monday, April 29, will be expected to report on May 6, 2024.

He attributed the extension to the ongoing floods occasioned by the nationwide torrential rains.