His Excellency, the Ambassador of Israel to Kenya Yahel Vilan as he​ gives out the books to the school!

Gatoto Community Primary School was founded by the local community of Mukuru Kwa Reuben in January 1994 and registered as a community school with the Ministry of Cultural and Social Services in 1997. It was later registered as a KCPE exam centre in 1999. The school is in Mukuru Kwa Reuben village off Enterprise Road, just behind Jomo Kenyatta Foundation. This is in Embakasi District

Gatoto was established in response to the growing number of children in the area who were unable to attend school due to the lack of places and high costs. Classes were held in a local church until the school moved to a four-roomed building constructed with a once off donation from Feed the Children (FTC), an American charity. In 1994, five teachers catered for 370 pupils within the church and with almost no supplies. In 1995 two Irish volunteers working with the Irish agency GOAL, helped the school to establish a management team and to introduce basic management processes. They also helped to secure the support of FTC for the core operating costs from 1996 to 2001. This support enabled the school to expand and to achieve academic and extra-curricular success. 

Gatoto Integrated Development Program (GIDP) supports Gatoto School to provide high quality, gender-balanced education to 1000 of Nairobi’s most disadvantaged children.  Through community-led, holistic education, Gatoto empowers its pupils to escape the cycle of poverty in which they live so that they may become Kenya’s leaders of tomorrow.  The school is now among the top schools in Nairobi by academic results and has won many awards and places at the National Level in extra-curricular activities.  It provides the students with a reliable vitamin-enriched meal, a hot lunch each day through the support of World Food Programme and Feed the Children. In addition, it provides social work and counselling resources.  

Over the last 10 years we have successfully negotiated funding for the redevelopment of the school’s physical facilities. Gatoto completed the second of six phases of construction projects last year. This saw the creation of a new kitchen. This follows the construction of 11 new permanent classrooms and a toilet block in 2008.  This construction was funded by 2 Irish NGOs (The O’Brien Foundation and Suas) and Irish Aid at a cost of Ksh 40M. This development is the second phase in what will see the reconstruction of the entire school’s over six phases at a cost of over Ksh. 110m.

GIDP is audited annually, and produces termly financial accounts and progress reports, which are available at www.gatoto.org. In addition to running the other programmes, GIDP is tasked with soliciting funds from donors and engaging the Government of Kenya and local parents for support. It facilitated the development of a governance structure and a full fledged Board of Management. This will ensure that Gatoto’s ethos is protected for a long time. We envision a school that is government aided and where GIDP and the local community work proactively with the government to consolidate the success of Gatoto.

The school consistently comes first in the country in, at least, four events in the National Music Festivals and wins awards at the District, Provincial, and National level in football, netball, volleyball and handball.  The school has an equal gender ratio and has reached a 98.6% annual retention rate.

Mukuru Kwa Reuben is in the Industrial Area in the East of Nairobi. In Nairobi 60% of the population live in these informal settlements occupying 5% of the land. Here the urban poor face a lot of physical, social and environmental issues. They include limited income, poor living conditions and employment prospects, insecure tenure, poor environmental and health conditions, limited access to facilities such as water and sanitation, sewerage, electricity and deprivation of opportunities especially in education and training.​