Street children in Nakuru town.
Kenya is permanently in a political stupor that it fails to see the large number of children that require attention. The number of street children has risen from a trickle in Nairobi, to now being a major concern in just about every town in the country.
These children sleep on the streets and earn their food through begging and scouring rubbish dumps. They have become a nuisance to many, but they are also at high risk of sexual abuse. Many have become addicted to drugs and alcohol.
As the suffering of street children continues, the government thought the best thing was to close down children’s homes instead of building even more to shelter them. The street children have been so dehumanised that the government has no proper policy programme to protect and nurture them. They practically do not exist, when, in fact, they are right in our faces every day, begging and sharing spaces with us in the streets as we breeze past them to our comfortable homes.
The rise in the number of street children could be linked to many factors, the main one being poverty. Many of them also lost parents to AIDS, and with no support from other relatives, community and the government, they turned to the streets. Over the years they have been considered pests and treated as such by the authorities. Police have been known to brutalise them and even use live ammunition to drive them away from city centres, as it happened in Eldoret.
Street children
It is sad that the plight of street children has also became politicised, like every other aspect of life in Kenya. Tribalism means children from “the other tribe” will be left to roam because they are from the wrong tribe. No one poses to think that the children are innocent victims of socio-economic failures that upended family lives and compromised their future, simply because they are street children. These children are not part of any social care, health or education programs due to negative labelling.
This article was inspired by a statement issued by an official from Thika town warning the public against feeding street children. I conjured up the image of warnings seen in animal parks where feeding of animals is forbidden. But she was, in fact, talking of human children who have been left to fend for themselves in the streets. If government officials knew their responsibilities to children, we would not be issuing warnings not to feed children in the streets.
Why are they even in the streets, if every government official was conversant with child protection laws and knew of their legal duties to children?
Children do not choose where they are born. They rely on adults for guidance, safety and nurturing. If their primary carers are unable or unavailable to perform these duties due to death or disease, it is the responsibility of the government to assume the role of loco-parentis. Successive governments in Kenya put simply, have failed to assume that role. Instead, they have put the lives of millions of children in danger by denying them basic needs such as food, shelter, education and healthcare because they live on the streets!
As the Social Health Authority fall-out continues, no one has mentioned its impact on street children, who are at risk due to their poor standard of living. They live among our filth at dumping sites and prone to infections like everyone else.
As MPs increase their salaries as often as they want to and get interest free mortgages, I wonder who actually needs a home the most. Is it overpaid Kenyan politicians or a street child hoping to be protected by Parliament?
Child protection issues
Counties have not fared any better on child protection issues. If anything, the money announced frequently to be set aside to rid the cities of street children is always lost. Nairobi City County has been notorious for embezzlement of funds set aside for street children. These children have, in fact, become fodder for greedy, uncaring and selfish politicians.
There seems to be attempts to derail many sectors that are of benefit to children, such as education and healthcare. This is counter-productive in the long run. Whether a child is from the street or not, they are a future human resource for Kenya worth spending on.
My plea to the government is to focus on child protection by making sure that all children can access quality education, healthcare, housing and work. Fighting corruption is fighting for the future of children. We should think of having social care workers who will follow up on children’s welfare, and protect the children through a multi-agency approach.
The government has duty of care to all the children, street children included, and they must take this seriously. Treating street children like vermin and setting security agents on them does not solve the problem. No child should sleep on the street while their leaders are offered expensive homes on the cheap.
Ms Guyo is a legal research, [email protected], @kdiguyo
