Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Kenya.htm
|
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Kenya. Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated
or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity
or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some
manage to leave the street. Perhaps
your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how
they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each other. Would you like to write about market
children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Step up
sensitization on the plight of street children, urges VP VPPS, Kenya
Broadcasting Corporation, Oct 01, 2007 [accessed 18 January
2017] Mr. Awori said
Kenya is estimated to host more than 300,000 children and youth on the
streets who engage in survival tactics that endanger their well being and
that of the society. "Most of
them are abused, neglected, exposed to criminal and gang activities, suffer
poor health due to their lifestyles and exposure to harsh environment, drug
and substance abuse, and exposure to HIV/AIDS infection", he
lamented. He said the large numbers of
children who live and work in the streets is a reflection of some of the most
intractable development challenges of the society, which he attributed to
lack of proper education and family guidance in upbringing. Kenya: Naivasha
Town Bursting at the Seams With Street Families Macharia Mwangi,
Daily Nation, Nairobi, 18 January 2008 [accessed 18 January
2017] Naivasha Town will
soon be bursting at the seams with street children and street adults. And
thanks to a flourishing horticultural industry that has attracted many job
seekers, the town's population is exploding.
Many such job seekers end up in the back streets where they beg, bowl
in hand. Those below 10 years station themselves at major shops soliciting
for alms from shoppers, while others survive on dump sites from which they
forage for food. But there is
order. Newcomers who fail to adhere to
the street rules are punished and the incorrigible ones driven out of town. OWN RULES - "We have our own rules, regulations
and guidelines," says Peter Njoroge.
The streets have been zoned off into three different categories known
as "base", and depend on the age-group and experience in the
streets. The Kaduma street
children are not allowed to stray into the territory of the older colleagues,
unless they have an urgent message to deliver. Those flouting the rules are beaten up by
the "disciplinary committee" members. Street children
kill guard in night raid Mathias Ringa And
Eunice Machuhi, Daily Nation, June 10, 2008 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/street-children-kill-guard-in-night-raid/ [accessed 18 January
2017] One security guard
was killed and another is fighting for his life at Coast General Hospital in
Mombasa after a vicious attack by some street children, a police official
said on Monday. Mombasa police boss
Patrick Wafula suspected that the street urchins might have attacked the
guards at Nafasi Auto World since the assailants stole vehicle side mirrors
and wipers. ***
ARCHIVES *** How Covid-19 is
changing the lives of street children Life just got harder
for them due to reduced human traffic, but some cartels use them to sell
drugs Patrick Vidija, The Star, 30 July 2020 www.the-star.co.ke/news/big-read/2020-07-30-how-covid-19-is-changing-the-lives-of-street-children/ [accessed 8 February
2023] Stano said the streets
are so tough and begging is not an easy task. On normal days before
coronavirus, it was a bit easier for them to scavenge and get food to eat.
But currently, the pandemic has made the already hostile streets unbearable. “There are no hotels or eateries to give us
leftovers. No hawkers are selling food in town, so my brother things are
really tough for us,” he said. Stano said they would
meet up in town and gather around some of the big screens installed on
buildings to watch news and other entertainment programmes,
but due to curfew, all that has been taken away from them. He said by 6pm, they leave town headed for
the slums because at least there, they will find a peaceful night away from
police harassment. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor
Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/kenya.htm [accessed 16
February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are large numbers of street children in
Kenya’s urban centers, many of whom are involved in illegal activities such
as theft and drug trafficking. There
is a high incidence of child prostitution in Kenya, particularly in Nairobi
and Mombasa. There are also reports of
widespread prostitution among girls who hawk or beg by day, and work as
prostitutes by night Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61575.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] CHILDREN
-
Economic displacement and the spread of HIV/AIDS continued to affect the
problem of homeless street children. In 2002 the East African Standard
reported an estimated 250 thousand children living on the streets in urban
areas (primarily Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Nakuru); this figure was a
conservative estimate. These children often were involved in theft, drug
trafficking, assault, trespassing, and property damage. Street children faced
harassment as well as physical and sexual abuse from police and within the
juvenile justice system. The government
provided programs to place street children in shelters and assisted NGOs in
providing education, skills training, counseling, legal advice, and shelter
for girls abused by their employers. In 2003 the government provided an
employment program for orphans and abandoned youth that included training and
subsidized employment, but its effectiveness was limited. By November 231 of
300 street children in the National Youth Service had graduated from
vocational courses. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 12 October 2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/kenya2001.html [accessed 16
February 2011] [35] The Committee is
concerned about the incidence of police brutality, particularly against
street children, refugee children and those in conflict with the law. Concern
is also expressed at the inadequate enforcement of existing legislation to
ensure that all children are treated with respect for their physical and
mental integrity and their inherent dignity. [51] The Committee
is concerned about widespread poverty and the increasingly high numbers of
children in the State party who do not enjoy the right to an adequate standard
of living, including children belonging to poor families, AIDS orphans,
street children, internally displaced children, children of ethnic minorities
and children living in remote rural communities. [57] The Committee
expresses grave concern at the high and increasing numbers of street
children. In particular, the Committee notes their limited access to health,
education and other social services, as well as their vulnerability to police
brutality, sexual abuse and exploitation, economic exploitation and other
forms of exploitation. [59] The Committee
notes with appreciation that the State party has signed a memorandum of
understanding with ILO and that various ILO/International Program on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) programs to prevent and combat child labor
are being carried out. The Committee also welcomes the establishment of a
National Steering Committee on child labor. Nevertheless, and in the light of
the current economic situation, the increasing number of school drop-outs and
the increasing number of street children, the Committee is concerned about
the large number of children engaged in labor and the lack of information and
adequate data on the situation of child labor and economic exploitation in
the State party. The Committee notes also with concern that notwithstanding
various legal provisions there is no firm minimum age for admission to
employment and that child labor is still prevalent in the State party. [61] The Committee
notes that the State party participated in the World Congress against
Commercial Sexual Exploitation, held in Stockholm in 1996, and subsequently
established a National Plan of Action to prevent and combat the commercial
sexual exploitation of children. However, the Committee is concerned about
the large and increasing number of child victims of commercial sexual
exploitation, including prostitution and pornography, especially among those
engaged in domestic labor and street children. Concern is also expressed at
the insufficient programs for the physical and psychological recovery and
social reintegration of children who are the victims of such abuse and
exploitation. Street Life in
Kenya Ochieng' Ogodo,
IslamOnline, May 10, 2009 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June
2011] “Sometimes you feel
that the world has neglected you with all the cold merciless winds of
suffering raging against you. You have no space and you just want to die,”
summed up Ramadhan Njogu ugua a.k.a ‘Msani’, with many years experience on
the streets of Nairobi. With a distant look
in his eyes from under the curved shade of a peaked cap, he breathed rather
heavily and blurted out: "It has been difficult -- very tough. Years
have rolled by, and life has been extremely tormenting. Living in the streets
is no easy undertaking". "Society does
not accept you. People look at you very suspiciously whenever you walk
around". FROM THE BEGINNING - Born into a
poverty stricken and quarrelsome family, Mbugua left school when attending class
three at primary school. He hit the
streets at the age of about 11, in 1998. My 30-year mission
to teach the slum children of Nairobi Independent.ie,
April 15 2009 www.independent.ie/lifestyle/my-30year-mission-to-teach-the-slum-children-of-nairobi-1708378.html [accessed 6 June
2011] Although
heart-warming to hear the success stories of ex-street children who received
their education and a chance in life thanks to the Sisters of Mercy and their
donors in Ireland, the smile quickly fades when you hear the dangers faced by
a child living on the streets. Few
people in Nairobi know more than Sr Mary just how deadly this life can
be. "In my 30 years of work with
street girls," she says, "I've only met one girl over seven years
of age who hasn't been sexually abused." Sr Mary recounts the story of a gang of 10
"very wild street girls" between 10 and 12 years of age that would make
St Trinian's schoolgirls look like angels.
The girls approached her in 1991 requesting the opportunity to begin
primary school. None had attended school up until then. They then told how
one day they met some Europeans who offered them drugs and filmed them
carrying out acts that were so depraved it took them months before they could
even speak about the horrors of that night.
All the girls had worked as prostitutes before coming to school and
their persistent pimps would follow them from prison to school, attempting to
lure them back onto the streets again.
"There was no way of stopping them if they wanted to go
back," says Sr Mary. "Some of the girls couldn't live without the
money and the drugs." Out of the
group of 10, two went back with their pimps, five finished secondary school
and three have since died of AIDS, an illness they probably contracted while
on the streets. Putting some shine
into children's lives Esme Allen,
Edinburgh Evening News, 14 April 2009 edinburghnews.scotsman.com/features/Putting-some-shine-into-childrens.5167034.jp [accessed 6 June
2011] It was four years
ago that the brothers were found begging on the streets of Kisumu by charity
worker Jonas Okoth, then 34. Their father had been jailed for murder and
their mother had remarried. Their stepfather's violent beatings made it clear
they weren't wanted, so their mother choose her new husband over her boys and
abandoned them, aged just three and one. They were malnourished and filthy,
with scabies and infections. Study: Glue-Sniffing
Epidemic Rampant Among Kenyan Street Children Voice of America VOA
News, December 1 2008 www.issuepost.com/news/story/12019.html [accessed 6 June
2011] www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2008-12-01-voa48/404787.html [accessed 19
December 2016] The Undugu Society
released a study in October on glue and other substance abuse by Nairobi's
street children. The report says
street children sniff glue mostly because of peer pressure, to feel good from
the high, to stay warm and to ward off hunger pains. "There are
some things that you cannot do when you are sober, like eating garbage. You
need to sniff glue so that you can have the courage to eat garbage and do other
work in the streets," Shaban said.
Street children resort to scavenging, begging, stealing and
prostitution to finance their addiction. Ross Kemp: I have
seen some shocking things ... but nothing has moved me more than this Martin Phillips, The
Sun (UK), 29 Sep 2008 www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1743764.ece [accessed 6 June
2011] A young mother, no
older than 16, sat in the dirt, wheezily breathing from a jar of glue. Her eyes glazed over as the solvent fumes
stupefied her senses. Then she
casually passed the toxic jar for her one-year-old child to sniff. Close by, children of five and six buried
their mouths and noses in similar jars, hungrily inhaling the hazardous
chemicals. These are the glue kids of
Kenya, the tragic victims of a country where abject poverty is widespread —
but still not the worst thing that can happen to the poorest of the poor. TOUGH - “So, despite
people’s best efforts, it’s still tough being a street kid in Kenya — and the
really unlucky ones end up among the glue kids. “Children barely old enough to walk have
the little plastic bottles clamped to their lips, breathing in the fumes from
the solvents to give them the hit to which they are chemically addicted. “Walking among them was like walking into a
living nightmare. “I saw mothers
giving glue bottles to their toddlers. I saw tiny children adept at placing a
stick into their bottles to release more fumes. “I saw one woman so high on solvents that
she bent over and dropped the baby she was carrying on its head. "The woman just smiled dreamily and
then performed a little dance — I don’t know if she even realised what had
happened. “She then picked the toddler
up and put the glue fumes to its mouth to stop it crying. “It was a genuinely heart-breaking scene.” Ross added: “Most of the kids had lost
parents in tribal fighting that happened after the election. Body exhumed from
rape suspect's house August 20 2008 www.skcentral.com/news.php?readmore=3031 [accessed 6 June
2011] www.officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com/showthread.php?4606-Kenya-Body-Exhumed-From-Rape-Suspect-s-House [accessed 19
December 2016] Shock and disbelief
gripped Naivasha town residents as a body believed to be that of a victim of
a serial killer and rapist was exhumed from his house. Kisang' said the
suspect was the leader of a street children gang in Naivasha town which has
taken to terrorizing residents with impunity.
Naivasha MP John Mututho and his predecessor Jayne Kihara who were
present during the exhumation process expressed shock at the turn of events
and asked the government to take action against the street children who have
become a menace to the residents. KENYA: Numbers of
street children rising in Eldoret UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks IRIN, Eldoret, 8 August 2008 www.irinnews.org/report/79707/kenya-numbers-of-street-children-rising-in-eldoret [accessed 10 March
2015] William, 11, sleeps
in an alleyway between two shops in Eldoret town of Kenya's Rift Valley
Province, in constant fear of being beaten by police and other security
agents. "The thing I fear the
most is being beaten," he said. "Secondly is the fear of going
without food and clothes. "The
bad thing is that we are always chased and beaten by government and municipal
police," said William, who asked IRIN not to use his real name.
"Also when we sleep our things can get stolen ... it's not a safe place
for us." As if on cue, a security
guard from a nearby shop approached and hit him twice on the back with his
wooden truncheon and kicked him. William and his friends scattered and after
regrouping, laughed it off. "I
struggle to find food, but there's nothing I can do about the beatings,"
he said. KENYA: HIV services
are scarce on the street UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN PlusNews, Mombasa, 29 July 2008 www.irinnews.org/report/79505/kenya-hiv-services-are-scarce-on-the-street [accessed 10 March
2015] A HIGH-RISK LIFE - "These
people have to make a living, so the girls often turn to sex work and will
easily have sex without protection; they are also unprotected from sexual
violence," Wairimu said. "They are especially vulnerable because
many are children orphaned by HIV and have had no real family structures
around them when they were growing up."
Illegal drugs were widely available on the streets, and while high on
glue and other substances, young people often made unsafe sexual choices or
shared needles, putting themselves at greater risk of contracting HIV. "The majority of the street families
in Mombasa and elsewhere have succumbed to HIV due to the 'don't care'
lifestyle practiced on the streets," Dona said, adding that people
living on the street were extremely sexually active. – sccp 10 Million Orphans Tom Masland and Rod
Nordland, Newsweek, January 17, 2000 www.newsweek.com/2000/01/16/10-million-orphans.html [accessed 6 June
2011] Even on the mean
streets of Homa Bay, a fishing center of 750,000 on Lake Victoria, the
children stand out: Kenya has 350,000 AIDS orphans, and 35,000 of them live
here. Many of those who have not been forcibly removed to the orphanage are
street children--pickpockets and beggars, prostitutes and thieves. To Hamis
Otieno, 14, and his brother, Rashid Faraji, 10, the streets of Homa Bay were
their last, best hope. Their father had died of AIDS in 1995; their mother
turned to prostitution and abandoned them soon after. Relatives, unable to
provide for the boys, cast them out. The brothers made their way by bus to Nairobi,
150 miles away, where they stole, begged and worked as drug couriers. But
after a year, hungry and alone, the boys went home; hustling promised to be
easier on the less competitive streets of Homa Bay. Former street boy
secures athletics contract abroad www.eastandard.net/sports/InsidePage.php?id=1143988475&cid=4& [Last access date
unavailable] "Life in the
streets of Kisumu was not easy, we were forced to go hungry and sleep in the
cold. If we cooked, it was in tins, which were very unhygienic," said
the boy who left the country last week.
After living on the street for one and a half years, Osir met another
street boy, Aziz, who convinced him to travel to Mombasa for ‘greener’
pastures. In 2002, the two boys hid
underneath train seats and made their way to Nairobi. They waited for two
days before catching another train to Mombasa. On arrival, they established their base at
Maboksini, an area well-known to harbour street families. Aziz left for
Nairobi two weeks later. "Life in
Mombasa was not as tough as in Nairobi and Kisumu. Food was easily
accessible," he said. After spending some
days in the streets, former mayor Taib Ali Taib visited the street families
accompanied by the former Kisauni MP and then Local Government Minister, Marisa
Maitha. The visit was in 2003. The
mayor announced they would be taken to the National Youth Service (NYS) to be
rehabilitated and trained. Five
hundred street children were collected in Mombasa shaved, bathed and given
new clothes as they waited to be taken to Nairobi for the training. "When we arrived in Nairobi, we found
some 300 more street youths whom we joined as we headed to the NYS training
base at Gilgil," he said. Osir
recalls that within the first one week, more than 100 street youths escaped
from the institution and ran back to the streets since they could not cope
with the new life. The Protection
Project - Kenya [DOC] The Paul H. Nitze
School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/kenya.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - It is estimated that Kenya has
250,000 street children, including 60,000 in Nairobi. As many as 892,000 children in Kenya have
been orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS.
These children are especially vulnerable to the false promises of
traffickers. Love’s indomitable
spirit still alive and well in Kenya Rasna Warah,
2/25/2008 [accessed 25
September 2011] When people in
Europe were giving their lovers expensive fresh-cut roses (many of which are
grown in and exported from the blood-stained lakeside town of Naivasha), a
group of 11-year-old street children in Nairobi decided to raise Sh50 to buy
a flower for their friend Michael, who they had carried to the Nairobi
Women’s and Children’s Hospital following a brutal sexual attack. Since then,
they have been visiting their badly injured and traumatised fellow street
child at least three times a day. Police force may
recruit former street children Dominic Wabala,
Daily Nation, 17 February 2008 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2008/02/16/police-force-may-recruit-former-street-children/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Former street
children who were sent to the National Youth Service might now find their way
into the police force. This follows a decision by the government to increase
the number of police officers and include NYS graduates during
recruitment. Ten thousand recruits who
will be inducted into both the Kenya Police and Administration Police are
scheduled to be vetted and jointly trained at the National Youth Service
training college in Gilgil, where a group of street children were first
rehabilitated and trained in 2003. Kenyan School for
Homeless Children Hit Katharine Houreld,
Associated Press AP, Feb 4, 2008 www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/02/04/1277397-kenyan-school-for-homeless-children-hit [accessed 6 June
2011] usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-02-04-833444101_x.htm [accessed 6 June
2011] The children of the
Sugoi-Munsingen home were among the least lucky to begin with. They survived
life on the streets, drug use and beatings before finally making it to the
home that was once a safe place. Now they have nothing. Seven-year-old
Kevin Saisi and his 9-year-old brother were abandoned by their parents and
ended up on the streets before being picked up by police. They landed at
Sugoi-Munsingen, where they found a haven.
Kevin bears a V-shaped scar on his forehead from a beating by his
uncle. The weekend attack on his school and home, he said, is "like I
had another beating." Headmaster
Samuel Rutto said his school was destroyed by gangs taking advantage of the
chaos, spurred on by the ethnic conflicts that are raging. Kenyan City Is
Gripped by Violence Jeffrey Gettleman,
The New York Times, Kisumu, January 6, 2008 www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/world/africa/06kenya.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin [accessed 6 June
2011] Oginga Odinga
Street, the main thoroughfare in town, is a testament to rage. Dozens of stores have been looted, torched
and smashed by rioters and then picked clean by an army of glue-sniffing
street children searching for whatever was left. The scorched Ukwala
supermarket looks as if a bomb blew up inside it. The gates of Zamana
Electronic are mangled. People here
say this is just the beginning. Up the street,
Bernard Ndede, a high school English teacher, watched street children
carefully sift through inches of rubble on the floor of a charred
supermarket, as if they were urban archaeologists. He said he did not approve of the looting,
but he understood the anger. “People
woke up so early that day to vote for change,” he said, referring to election
day and the millions of people who voted for Mr. Odinga. “They felt robbed.” Kenya: Street
Children's Lobby Accuses Police David Macharia, The
Nation, Nairobi, 9 November 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/kenya-street-childrens-lobby-accuses-police/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Police were on
Thursday accused of failing to take action on those who sell glue to street
children. fficials of Ex-Street
Children Community Based Organisation Joshua Lubale (chairman), Benson Juma
Akumu (organising secretary) and Peter Njenga (secretary) said sniffing of
glue by street children was widespread in Eldoret. The organisation was
founded by former street boys in the town.
The officials said in Eldoret that it was easy to pick out the shops
and individuals who sold glue to the children. Most of the children, they
said, were willing to reveal their source of the substance. Kenya: Ease
Children's Suffering Editorial, Daily
Nation, Nairobi, 7 November 2007 allafrica.com/stories/200711061210.html [partially accessed
6 June 2011 - access restricted] Many genuine
individuals and organisations are doing a good job looking after orphans and
other needy children. However, in
recent years, there has been an increase in the number of bogus groups or
individuals supposedly moved by the plight of street children, but whose real
motivation is to use this as a means to enrich themselves. Kenya: Former
Street Children Out to Change Life in the City Slums Arno Kopecky, The
Nation, Nairobi, 22 September 2007 [accessed 6 June
2011] Mr Nduati, a
soft-spoken 26-year-old, left an abusive home when he was 14 and entered life
in the streets. "I started hustling," he remembers; "stealing
when I could, doing odd jobs for a few days at a time. I was taking drugs
everyday, whatever I could lay my hands on - brown sugar, marijuana, alcohol,
glue - I went crazy for years." ARTICULATE FOUNDER - It's difficult
to equate this story with the articulate founder of Emmanuel Boyz Centre
standing before me now. But it is precisely his experience of life in the
streets that gave Mr Nduati the drive and compassion to start up Emmanuel in
2000. The youth centre has so far taken 300 children off the streets,
providing them with shelter, food and a productive environment in which to
focus on self-development rather than merely surviving. Children hooked to
miraa Lawrence Kinoti,
East African Standard, Nairobi, 15 September 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/kenya-children-hooked-to-miraa/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Eleven-year-old
Joshua Mwithia wobbles and almost trips as he heaves under a heavy load on
his back. This is his fifth trip to Mutuati shopping centre, one of the
drop-off points of miraa (khat) in Meru North. Mwathi is tired and emaciated but he has to
toil on because he has a family to feed. His 14-hour daily job involves
harvesting and ferrying miraa from various farms. Omwanza says
keeping children off farms and streets is difficult because of extreme
poverty. Miraa pickers are locally
known as Ntungi — the uneducated. The
Government official regrets majority of the affected children are aged between
11 and 16. The ones who find the going tough, he says, eventually graduate
into street children. Maua town has
about 67 street children. The officer says the figure has reduced from more
than 100 in January after his department and the provincial administration
re-united some of them with their parents. Others were placed in approved
schools through local courts orders.
Guidance and counselling helps street children reintegrate into the
society. The very vulnerable orphans, he says, are usually taken to
children’s homes while others have caregivers appointed for them through the
cash transfer programme. Under the
programme, caretakers or guardians are given Sh1,000 every month to provide
for food, clothing, education and medical care. Kenya: Awori Warns
of Increasing Number of Street Children James Ratemo, East
African Standard, 7 September 2007 streetkidnews.blogsome.com/2007/09/07/kenya-awori-warns-of-increasing-number-of-street-children/ [accessed 6 June
2011] The number of street
children could hit 2.5 million by 2010, unless there is urgent intervention,
Vice-President, Mr Moody Awori, warns. Kenya: Former
Street Boys Bail Out 'Comrades' David Macharia,
Daily Nation, Nairobi, 6 September 2007 allafrica.com/stories/200709060117.html [partially accessed
6 June 2011 - access restricted] Mr Lubale, Mr
Njenga and Mr Akumu are a product of various children's homes in Uasin Gishu
but feel the homes were not doing enough to rehabilitate the children. They accused the homes of being centres of
oppression and mistreatment. They said it was their experience in the homes
that they decided to form the organisation to help their comrades. The lobbyists
joined the homes with a lot of expectations - they expected their lives to
change for the better after going through rough times in the street at tender
age. Today the three look back with a
lot of bitterness because the homes did not mould them to be what they wished
to be in life. Instead, they were
released back to the streets and found things worse than before, a fact that
has made many people who passed through the homes to end up in prison,
becoming criminals or prostitutes. "There are so
many children's homes in the country. Why don't we see the children trooping
from streets to these homes? Instead we see children running away from the
homes to go back to the streets," they said. The three lobbyists are convinced there is
something not right in the homes for them not to be attractive to street
children. Scouts Canada Helps
Break Cycle of Poverty for Kids in Kenya Camp Tamaracouta,
QC, Canada Newswire CNW, Telbec, July
31, 2007 www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2007/31/c2592.html [accessed 6 June
2011] "I'm so amazed
to be here in Canada," explains Peter Kariuki, a former street Scout and
now a leader of an Extension Scout Troop in Nairobi. "When I was first
approached by Scouters on the streets of Nairobi at the age of ten, I was
living on the streets, scrounging through garbage heaps. Scouting changed my
life, as it enabled me to get an education and provided me with valuable life
skills. I'm now in my third year of university studying social and community
development. Scouting makes such an incredible difference in so many lives
where children are homeless with little hope for a future. I want to
contribute to this Movement by giving back to others what Scouting has given
to me." For 2 runaway
brothers, an education comes against tremendous odds International Herald
Tribune, NAIROBI, 2007-07-20 article.wn.com/view/2007/07/20/For_2_runaway_brothers_an_education_comes_against_tremendous/ [accessed 6 June
2011] School was the last
thing on Pascal Mwanchoka's mind when he and his younger brother boarded a
bus that would take them far from their mother and her alcohol-fueled
rages. Just 13 years old, Pascal
figured the boys' schooldays were over for good. "My mother wasn't feeding us, she
wasn't taking us to school," said Pascal, who came here from the coastal
city of Mombasa looking for work but ended up living in the gutters of
Nairobi. "She was a drunk." Less than a year
later, Pascal and 10-year-old Lenjo are off the streets and back in class,
attending a free program in Nairobi for children too poor even to afford a
meal of maize and beans. They are among millions of children who struggle
against vast obstacles for the luxury of going to school on the poorest
continent in the world. Nairobi’s Street
Children: Hope for Kenya’s future generation UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, NAIROBI, 23 February 2007 www.irinnews.org/report/69987/kenya-nairobi-s-street-children-hope-for-kenya-s-future-generation [accessed 10 March
2015] pictures.irinnews.org/in-depth/69987/28/kenya-nairobi-s-street-children-hope-for-kenya-s-future-generation [accessed 19
December 2016] “I lost my parents
three years ago and since then I have been living in the streets without shelter
and assurance of having food every day. Nobody cares about me; whether I live
or not,” said William Githira, 15, who lives in the streets of the Kenyan
capital. “People don’t want to look
at me. I’m trash. I don’t want to live in the streets, but I have nobody. My
uncle beat me hard when I lived there, and so I ran. Living in the street is
the only way to survive”, he added. Street children
face endless cruelties. Their rights have been violated many times by the
adults who were supposed to protect them. In many cases these children are
subject to sexual exploitation in return for food or clothes. Often, police
detain and beat them without reason.
“Kenya is a mess! The conditions for street children are terrible,”
said Miriam Ndegwa, programme associate of Youth Alive Kenya. Geoffrey, 23, described his experience in a
police station: “I was sleeping one night in the street when the police came
and took me to the police station. I did nothing wrong. In the police station
I was beaten to confess a crime I did not do. [The police officer] wouldn’t
stop until I agreed to what he said. He beat me everywhere with his cane.” Human Rights Watch
- Street Children Human Rights Watch At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June
2011] In Bulgaria,
Guatemala, India, and Kenya, Human
Rights Watch has reported that police violence against street children is
pervasive, and impunity is the norm. The failure of law enforcement bodies to
promptly and effectively investigate and prosecute cases of abuse against
street children allows the violence to continue. Establishing police
accountability is further hampered by the fact that street children often
have no recourse but to complain directly to police about police abuses. The
threat of police reprisals against them serves as a serious deterrent to any
child coming forward to testify or make a complaint against an officer. Street children
given new life Jaclyn Cosgrove,
University Wire, (Daily O'Collegian) (U-WIRE) Kenya, 04-30-2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/street-children-given-new-life/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Each day parents
across the U.S. practically have to drag their children out of bed as the
children beg to stay home from school.
Meanwhile, in Kenya, thousands of children wake up near trash piles,
unaware of where their parents are. No
one is yelling that breakfast is ready. No one is reminding them to wash
behind their ears or to brush their teeth.
In 2002, the East African Standard, a national newspaper in Kenya,
reported a conservative estimate of 250,000 children living on the streets in
urban areas of Kenya. These children
are often involved in theft, drug trafficking, assault, trespassing and
property damage. Some face harassment, as well as physical and sexual abuse
from police and within the juvenile justice system, according to the
newspaper. “When they grow up,
and they are strong, and they’re not taken care of, they become not now begging
but demanding, ‘Give me your vehicle keys, or I shoot you,” Kabuba says.
“Before, they were begging, ‘Give me a schilling or I smear you with human
waste.’” Oftentimes street
children use one hand to beg and with the other hand hold human waste and
threaten to smear it on someone who won’t give them money, Kabuba says. From the streets
with hope Lynesther Mureu, The
East African Standard, Nairobi, April 4, 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/from-the-streets-with-hope/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Picture this: You
enter a deserted city street and, believing you are safe, you suddenly sense
unwelcome company from behind. Stealthily increasing your pace, obviously
terrified about prospects of being mugged, physically injured or smeared with
grime, you are transfixed when another street boy appears just ahead of you.
You are trapped! Such were the
scenarios that inhabitants of Nairobi were treated to, before street children
were cleared from the city streets a few years back. But where did these kids
go and what became of them? Kenya and Ireland
work together - Helping street kids of Nairobi Derry Journal, 30
January 2007 www.derryjournal.com/news/local/kenya_and_ireland_work_together_helping_street_kids_of_nairobi_1_2109587 [accessed 6 June
2011] Official estimates
put the number of street children in Nairobi between 50,000-60,000. Street kids raid
poverty summit BBC News, 24 January
2007 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6295633.stm [accessed 6 June
2011] Dozens of street
children have invaded a five-star hotel food tent and feasted on meals meant
for sale at the World Social Forum in Kenya's capital. The hungry urchins were joined by other
participants who complained that the food was too expensive at the annual
anti-capitalist get together. Committee on Rights
of Child examines report of Kenya Press Release, UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 16 January 2007 www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/3DB9B29E667970EBC125726600325AB4?opendocument [accessed 6 June
2011] reliefweb.int/report/kenya/committee-rights-child-examines-report-kenya [accessed 19
December 2016] PRESENTATION OF
REPORT
- One
of the greatest challenges Kenya faced was the increasing number of children living
and working in the streets, Mr. Awori observed. The Government had started an
initiative in 2003 to rehabilitate street children under which 6,000 former
street children had been rehabilitated and enrolled in different primary
schools countrywide and 800 children had acquired vocational skills in
various national youth service units countrywide. Street Children, A
Waiting Disaster Richard Oundo, The
New Times, Kigali, January 8, 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/01/08/rwanda-street-children-a-waiting-disaster/ [accessed 18 January
2017] When a section of a
population fails to achieve or acquire what it needs, it finds a way of
manifesting the problem. In a city like Nairobi, it is paying for letting
loose the street children. They have now grown into street adults hardened by
the conditions they went through. They steal and rob with impunity. The
police and country are grappling with the problem to date. A pedestrian’s
security on any Kenyan street is not guaranteed. African trio takes
World Bank to task Agence France-Presse
AFP, NAIROBI, Oct 30, 2006 www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2006/10/30/2003334043 [accessed 6 June
2011] For Kangethe, the
program has been "a life changing experience" after spending seven
years on the streets of Dagoretti, a sprawling slum 10km west of downtown
Nairobi that is home to an estimated 240,000 people. "I used to eat
from trash cans, beg for money and steal food," said Kangethe of his
life on the street after he left home because of the routine beatings he
suffered at the hands of his alcoholic father. "I slept in the cold, covered only
with a gunny sack," he said. "I was addicted to sniffing glue and
marijuana but now I know how to shoot film, write scripts, interview people
and edit video." "I have
hope for my future," he added. Spearheading
Africa’s green revolution Harold Ayodo, The
East African Standard, October 1, 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June
2011] She
also visited homesteads that were deserted because children had taken to the
streets of Kisumu after their parents succumbed to Aids related
complications. At the
end of her visit she decided to do something about the situation. "I
resolved to teach orphans and widows how to farm so that they could be able to
feed themselves and stay in the homesteads," she says. She
rented a quarter-acre-piece of land at the Maseno Farmers Training Centre in
Kisumu and bred broilers, cows and goats. She also made peanut butter, kept
bees and planted vegetables. "I started from scratch. I had no money but
I resolved to help the widows and orphans to use the available resource —
land," she says. Dreams of Kisumu Cherie Catron,
Worldpress, September 20, 2006 www.worldpress.org/Africa/2497.cfm [accessed 6 June
2011] Unfortunately, not
all the children of Manyatta can attend the school; many peer over the barbed
wire fences surrounding the school, listening in and watching the school
children playfully learning. According to UNICEF, Kisumu now offers free
public education for primary school children, yet we encountered large
numbers of children on the other side of the school fence. It appears that
their education is still not entirely free: they must buy uniforms and other
school supplies. Some children we met claimed they were forced to leave their
schools when they could not afford their fees. And according to UNICEF,
orphaned children are likely to drop out of school for a myriad of factors.
One common reason is that nearly an entire generation of their families,
parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles has been wiped out by HIV and AIDS,
leaving no one to take care of them or to provide them with guidance and
supervision. Others leave school to nurse sick relatives or to work to
support their siblings. Former street boy
wins international award www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=1143958444 [Last access date
unavailable] Nduati is now appealing
to parents to readmit reformed street children into their homes. He also
wants teachers to accommodate, instead of mocking the children when they seek
readmission. PARENTS RELUCTANT TO
READMIT REFORMED CHILDREN - He told The Standard that while some parents were
reluctant to readmit the reformed children, some teachers also mocked them,
sending them back into the streets.
“Street people are normal and need understanding, love, patience and
care or they run back to the streets,” he said. Kivuli
Center Koinonia Community www.koinoniakenya.org/koinonia/articles/art_7426.html [accessed 6 June
2011] BACKGROUND - One major issue
of concern to the Koinonia Community has always been the increasing number of
children living in the streets of the African cities. It is estimated that in
1975, there were some 115 children in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya. It is
now estimated that there are over 60,000 children on the city's streets. Koinonia initiated a small street children
program in 1992. A football team comprising children living in the streets
and other children from Riruta area was formed. Alongside the sporting
activity, hot meals, medical care, school placement and temporary shelter
were provided to the children. This
led to the idea and the subsequent realization of Kivuli Center Children's home
petitions government [access information
unavailable] Shangilia Mtoto wa
Africa destitute children’s home wants the government to support the children
through formal education on their onward match to rewarding future careers.
The chidren's home is situated in the heart of the sprawling dusty Kangemi
slums, 12 kilo metres from the city centre on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. The
home is currently caring for 230 former street children. Kenyan officials
seek ideas for helping orphans Matt Kane, Special
to the Telegram & Gazette, August 2, 2006 www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060802/NEWS/608020401/1008/NEWS02xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [accessed 6 June
2011] When describing
Kibera, a section of Nairobi, Mr. Boisvert said one should picture 850,000
people living in New York City’s Central Park with no sewers, no trash
collection, and no running water and with children rearing children. “So that’s a slum where a lot of kids
live,” Ms. Githaiga added. From street boys to men The East African
Standard, Nairobi, 30 July 2006 allafrica.com/stories/200607310645.html [partially accessed
6 June 2011 - access restricted] Plans were mooted to
set up rehabilitation centers for thousands of street children, a project
that however appears to have lost momentum as the years roll by. In Nairobi, several
centres were set up at the time to serve as temporary holding grounds for the
street families, in Pumwani, Kariakor, Kayole, Shauri Moyo, Kibera and
Bahati. Currently, only two of these centres are operational. Occupants of the
closed centres have since gone back to the streets. Those who opted to stay,
have gone on to complete various courses in hairdressing, tailoring,
mechanics and catering. Trip to Kenya
reveals truth, changes life Sarah Rutherford,
2005 www.nomadtours.co.za/article_2006-8-28_10.html [accessed 6 June
2011] According to globalgiving.com,
there are approximately 2,000 street children in Eldoret. George works with a
roster of 58. We sat in his office as he explained the work he does. Just as we were leaving, George ran into
two mothers who were there seeking his help.
One mother was looking for her son, who was reluctant to go home
because he enjoys life on the street. Child Trafficking
in the U.K. Ambrose Musiyiwa
(amusiyiwa), OhmyNews, 2006-07-25 www.childtrafficking.org/cgi-bin/ct/main.sql?ID=2764&file=view_news.sql&TITLE=-1&TOPIC=-1&YEAR=- 1&LISTA=No&GEOG=-1&FULL_DETAIL=Yes [accessed 23 April
2012] She was a teenage
orphan living on the streets of Nairobi when a man approached her and
promised her work in the United Kingdom. He told her she would be working as
a house girl. True to his word,
her "savior" brought her into the U.K. -- but instead of placing
her with a family the man took her to a brothel, where she was systematically
raped, beaten, and forced to work as a prostitute. Three months later,
when the 16-year-old Kenyan girl became pregnant, she was forced to continue
sleeping with a succession of men until she was almost due to give birth. The
heavily pregnant teenager was then removed from the brothel, driven out of
the town where she had been held, and dumped many miles away on the streets
of Sheffield. Four months working
in Nairobi Austin Lynch,
Fermanagh Herald, Jul 20, 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June
2011] "The street
kids attending this project were mainly boys around the ages of 11 to 18
years who had spent anything from 4 - 6 years or more sleeping rough on the
streets." Working with the
others on the project, she quickly appreciated that many of the boys still
slept rough and, so she was able to establish three rooms in the slum which
now act as a night shelter. "Having this shelter can keep some of the
boys away from other street groups and possibly away from the curse of glue
sniffing, which is prevalent in such areas", she explained. Sex workers pose
major threat to students Mwangi Muiruri, July
10, 2006 www.scapa-lv.org/news/Sex%20workers%20pose%20major%20threat%20to%20students.htm [accessed 6 June
2011] Further, a local
social hall that is being used by the Nairobi City Council to rehabilitate
street children was identified as another major threat to the schooling
children. Wangare said: “These are no street children. They are teenagers and
adults whose experiences in the fast lane of life have hardened them. To them,
sex, drugs and money are issues they hold dear. To the unexposed children
within this area, they represent a kind of gangsterism life that is exciting
and adventurous. We demand that such rehabilitation centres be established
far from family units.” New approach to
helping Kenya's street children Chris Tomlinson,
CYC-Net, 2 May 2006 www.cyc-net.org/features/ft-kenyastreetchildren.html [accessed 6 June
2011] Sniffing glue and
smoking marijuana are often the only comforts street children know. On the
poorest continent in the world, the children are the poorest of the poor,
depending on begging, theft and prostitution to survive. Street children
describe a life of almost constant violence and fear. Stronger children
regularly beat the others, police raid their hideouts and sexual abuse is
rampant, the children say. What became of
street families rehab project? Paul Orenge , Kenya
Times Newspaper, May 23, 2006 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/05/23/kenya-times-newspaper/ [accessed 18 January
2017] Perhaps most
troubling is that barely into its fourth year, the families we had been made
to believe were to be cleared from the streets have since made a comeback. Plight of
streetchildren important issue in Africa Britanny Morehouse,
The Observer Vol XXXIV No. 120, April 10, 2001 www.nd.edu/~observer/04102001/Viewpoint/3.html [accessed 6 June
2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2001/04/10/plight-of-streetchildren-important-issue-in-africa/ [accessed 19
December 2016] Streetchildren are
a problem that differs according to gender. Whereas boys might find
themselves in a position of begging or working as parking boys for survival,
girls in the same predicament engage in survival prostitution. Girls are
therefore harassed by the police in more frightening ways than boys. Sadly enough, it is
the harrassment and negative adult reactions, not their hunger, that troubles
streetchildren the most. Isolation and distrust cause them the greatest pain.
Once, while I was in Kenya, a police officer stopped a streetboy who was
walking with me and helping me carry boxes. He immediately assumed the boy
was about to steal from me and chased him while swinging a baton. He forbid
the boy to go near any white lady, threatening him with arrest, even after I
protested and defended him. The kids invariably are accused of lying. US woman 'raped'
street boys Agence France-Presse
AFP, Nairobi, 2006-01-31 www.news24.com/Africa/News/US-woman-raped-street-boys-20060131 [accessed 6 June
2011] A Kenyan court
charged an American woman on Tuesday with sexually assaulting several street
boys at a Nairobi shelter where she was doing volunteer rehabilitation work. Nairobi is teeming
with tens of thousands of scruffy, glue-sniffing street children and a 2003
government plan to place them in proper housing and offer them vocational
training has floundered due to a lack of funds and enforcement. The AIDS/Orphan
Situation in Kenya Twana Twitu (Our
Children) twanatwitucares.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=44 [accessed 9 June
2011] twanatwitucares.org/wp/?page_id=60 [accessed 19
December 2016] CHILD
PROSTITUTION (A.K.A. "SURVIVAL SEX") - It has been found that even
guardians and others initially willing to help, find themselves unable to
cope with the additional responsibility of supporting extra children. As a
result, guardians are increasingly either sending these children out to the
streets with instructions to return home with money or expelling them from
their homes. So, what happens to a child with nowhere to go? What is the
quickest way for a teenager to make money? For females, prostitution is
usually the easiest option. STREET LIFE - As others have
said, the AIDS pandemic is devastating Kenya and her children are paying a
terrible price. By now, who hasn’t heard about Nairobi’s street children?!
They are the “Chokora” or “scavengers”. Attributable to the fact that many
AIDS orphans are out of school, without property and hungry, the phenomenon
of AIDS orphans exploding the streets is becoming yet another epidemic the
Kenyan government has had to face. While many issues are a factor in this
problem, it is undeniable that HIV/AIDS is pushing children into the street
and putting them in the path of many dangers including the risk of HIV
contraction and transmission. The children forage the city's garbage dumps
for food and withstand traumatizing abuse from the police and public alike.
Many, simply to escape their pain, engage in sniffing glue or other
hallucinogenic solvents, which impair judgment and yet again, make them more
vulnerable. Based on extensive interviews with service providers in Kenya,
for the most part, “an unprotected girl living on the streets will sooner of
later end up working as a prostitute.” JUVENILE INJUSTICE:
Police Abuse And Detention Of Street Children In Kenya Human Rights Watch
Children's Rights Project, June 1997 -- ISBN 1-56432-214-9 Library of Congress 97-77536 Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not displayed
because of its length [accessed 25
September 2011] Street children in
Kenya face innumerable hardships and danger in their daily lives. In addition
to the hazards of living on the street, these children face harassment and
abuse from the police and within the juvenile justice system for no reason
other than the fact that they are street children. Living outside the
protection of responsible adults, street children are easy and silent targets
for abuse by police and society at large. On the streets, they are subject to
frequent beatings by police as well as monetary extortion and sexual abuse.
They are subject to frequent arrest simply because they are homeless. SOS
Children: Street Children in Kenya SOS Children’s
Villages www.street-children.org.uk/african-street-children/kenya [accessed 6 June
2011] Some are sent out
by their impoverished parents to work or to beg. Others have lost their
families through war or illness, and some have simply been abandoned because
they have become too much of a burden. These street children scrabble to
maintain the most basic form of existence. They polish shoes, wash
windscreens, pick pockets and beg. Most of them take drugs when they can, are
malnourished and are sick. Sexual Abuse Part
of Life for Kenya's Street Children Gary Strieker, Cable
News Network CNN, Nairobi, August 28, 1996 edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9608/28/kenya.kids/ [accessed 6 June
2011] Sexual exploitation
is a fact of life for them. They can't
avoid sexual abuse because when they sleep, wherever they sleep, it's on the
streets. For girls on the streets, as
young as six or seven years, sexual abuse usually starts in gangs. When they are new on the streets, they are
raped in order to be accepted as a member of the street gang, KENYA: Soccer
Tournament Highlights Plight of Street
Children UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN PlusNews www.irinnews.org/report/31251/kenya-soccer-tournament-highlights-plight-of-street-children [accessed 10 March
2015] Hundreds of Kenyan
slum and street children on Thursday thronged the National Stadium in
Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, to take part in the finals of a month-long
soccer tournament, as part of a concerted initiative launched this year to
combat drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including
HIV/AIDS, among these high-risk youth. NGOs Concerned at
"Society Failing Street Children" UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN News www.irinnews.org/report/30520/kenya-ngos-concerned-at-society-failing-street-children [accessed 10 March
2015] Although the Kenyan
parliament last year passed a new law to protect children from neglect and
abuse, a combination of economic and social factors is forcing more and more
children to continue pouring into the streets throughout the country,
according to local nongovernmental organizations Temperament
Characteristics of Street and Non-Street Children in Eldoret, Kenya David O Ayuku,
Marten W Devries, HNK Arap Mengech & Charles D Kaplan -- African Health
Sciences 2004 April; 4(1): 24–30 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2141657/ [accessed 7 June
2011] Objective: To examine the
interaction of temperament and environment and how these impact on the
psychological function of street children and non-street children in Eldoret
Kenya. Conclusion: These results support
earlier research on street children. Counter to public opinion and hostility,
the children are resilient, adaptable and flexible in the face of adversity
and remaining well adjusted as individuals. Health Problems of
Street Children in Eldoret, Kenya Ayaya SO &
Esamai FO -- East Afr Med J. 2001 Dec;78(12):624-9 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12199442?dopt=Abstract [accessed 7 June 2011] Street children
have a high incidence of childhood diseases.
Factors determining occurrence of disease among street children are as
in normal children. Respiratory and
skin diseases were the leading causes of morbidity. Drug abuse was rampant among the street
children The Street Child
Phenomenon Njia Panda Ya
Tumaini (crossroads of hope) www.npyt.org/street.php [accessed 7 June
2011] Kitale has a
particularly large population of street children with estimates of between
200 and over 500 children on the streets at any one time. Estimates vary depending
on how one defines a street child Give me 5 shillings Expanding
Oportunities, Menengai West, Kenya www.exop.org/pub/fiveshillings.htm [accessed 7 June
2011] www.expandingopportunities.org/give-me-five-shillings/ [accessed 19
December 2016] The ragged dirty
boy held out his hand. My heart tried to ignore him. But there he was
standing in front of me. I shake my head and move on, a bundle of mixed
emotions. I didn't have any change but
that wasn't the real reason. We were told not to give them money. They would
only go buy glue to sniff. Nairobi's Street Children Aylward Shorter, The Tablet, 9 January 1999, Page 44 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7 June
2011] Their rights as
children are systematically denied, breaking down every single clause of the United
National 1990 Convention on Children’s Rights. Their health, protection and
development, even their very survival, are in jeopardy. Nairobi's Street Children Kirsten Hund,
student in international relations at the University of Groningen (Netherlands),
doing research for the Royal Netherlands Embassy about the position in
children of Kenya At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7 June
2011] Some are just sent
away to earn some money to feed the family. Others might be thrown out, or
driven by simple hunger. Very painful is that a lot of them drop out of
school because their parents can't, or won't pay their school fees, books or
uniforms, which often form a great burden for a poor family. Some of them,
especially girls, are hired out by their parents as household servants.
Children who are being abused or neglected run away from home. Parents
disappear or die, by AIDS or another disease, and if there are no other
relatives there's not much of a choice left for many children. A growing
amount of them are being raised on the streets; born from parents that live
on the streets themselves. One could think of many other factors that push a
child onto the streets. SSIP - Solution for
Street Children in Nairobi, Kenya H2G2, Feb 6, 2002 www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/entry/A691977 [accessed 7 June
2011] PROBLEM - NAIROBI'S
STREET CHILDREN
- The children whose parents can't afford to send them to school are left
alone in the slums during the day. Beset by hunger and boredom, they will
often find their way into the city centre. Here, they find other children
like themselves, already living on the streets. Many of these street children remain
separated from their families, who might have no idea where they have
gone. They find places to sleep in the
city, and their day-to-day existence consists of begging for a few Shillings
to buy some bread. KENYA: Focus on new
legislation and hopes for child welfare UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN www.irinnews.org/report/30551/kenya-focus-on-new-legislation-and-hopes-for-child-welfare [accessed 10 March
2015] Despite the new
law, designed to enhance child welfare and protect young people from neglect
and abuse, a combination of economic and social factors is forcing more and
more children to continue pouring into the streets throughout the country,
according to some indigenous NGOs. "Though we cry
of a poor economy, lack of resources and illiteracy as some of the hindrances
that prevent us from taking care of the so-called street children, we feel
that those are just excuses being used not to help them," John Gathungu,
head of the Victory Free Area Self-Help Group, an NGO based in Nakuru, in
Rift Valley Province, told IRIN on Wednesday. Official figures suggest
the presence of between 150,000 and 200,000 street children in Kenya, of whom
60,000 are in the capital, Nairobi, alone. However, according to the
Nairobi-based African Network for the Protection and Prevention against Child
Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN), up to 3.5 million Kenyan children of
school-going age are out of school, and a "good number" of those
are on the streets. "The children
will pour into the streets as long as they don't have a place to sleep and
someone to cook their food. The slums are also where most of the abuse and
rape of children take place," said the organisation's Phillista Onyango. Street Children of
Kericho Expanding
Oportunities, Menengai West, Kenya expandingopportunities.org/street_children/stkids.htm [accessed 7 June 2011] Some of these
children are as young as four years of age. The reasons these children turn
to the streets are many, but the most common one is the poverty their
families' face. Most often, hunger is the closest friend of a street child.
Unfortunately, many of them turn to sniffing glue from glue sticks. Who are the Street
Children? Kivuli (Shelter) -
The House of Street Children web.peacelink.it/koinonia_eng.html [accessed 7 June
2011] They are children
who cannot rely on their families to provide them what's necessary to live
and grow up peacefully. Even though few of them still maintain some kind of
bond with their parents, particularly with their mothers, street children
live by their wits in the back streets of huge cities, begging, collecting
garbage to be recycled, committing thefts or prostituting themselves. In order to relieve
the pangs of hunger, they often sniff glue, a cheap drug thus particularly
harmful, which in the long term causes permanent damage to the brain and to
the respiratory system. According to the last evaluations, 30.000 street
children live in Nairobi today. Ragazzi di strada
(Street Children), Meru Giulio Napolitano,
Graffiti Press, 2001 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7 June
2011] In Meru Town,
situated at about 250 kilometers from Nairobi, the most remarkable phenomenon
denoting the increased social break-up in Kenya is represented by the
presence of an impressive number of street children. They wander aimlessly,
in the indifference of local authorities and private citizens, organized into
gangs searching for something to eat and for money to buy glue they use a
drug. Their ages range between six and eighteen years old and they are
homeless. A World of Violence
- The Daily Battles of Nairobi's Street Children Ula Löw, EuroPROFEM - The European Men Profeminist
Network www.europrofem.org/contri/2_04_en/en-viol/20en_vio.htm [accessed 7 June
2011] THE MANY FACETS OF
VIOLENCE ON THE STREETS
- The increasing violence towards street children has only recently been
documented. Although there are now more statistics and reports on the issue,
the extent of the problem can never be under-estimated. Sleeping on the
pavement unprotected and forced to beg or steal for survival, street children
are constantly exposed to the risk of violence and exploitation. Report on the
mission of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of commercial sexual
exploitation of children to Kenya (25 August to 1 September 1997 UN Economic and
Social Council Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-fourth session, 28 January
1998 www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/e420d3b0329db6b8c1256621002cb691?Opendocument [accessed 7 June
2011] 3. At the same
time, specialists working with children in the streets were of the opinion
that poverty per se is not the only cause, although it certainly aggravates
matters, but that abuse or rejection within families is the primary reason
for the increase in street children and the consequent vulnerability to
commercial sexual exploitation. The breakdown of traditional family values
and the culture of African extended family were frequently cited as most
compelling causes leading to a moral disintegration of society, again making
children more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Children escape physical and
sexual abuse from home and from dysfunctional families affected by
unemployment, substance abuse and criminality, and end up in the streets.
Cultural practices in some communities (such as Nanyuki/Mt. Kenya) where families
send children out to earn money through prostitution are also compounding the
problem of sexual exploitation of children, but poverty is once again the
underlying factor. 4. In addition, the
increasing number of single parent families, and in particular female-headed
households, results in children having to supplement the family income or
being left to their own devices. In view of the scarcity of employment
opportunities, girl children might often be pushed to engage in commercial
sex, with or without the knowledge of their parents or family. – sccp All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children - Kenya",
http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Kenya.htm, [accessed <date>] |
