As schools prepare to close this week for the August holiday, concerns are growing over the safety and welfare of children left unsupervised at home, especially in low-income and informal settlements.
Across coastal counties like Kwale and Mombasa, parents have expressed fears that the lack of structured programmes and child-friendly spaces will expose children to harmful environments, including drug abuse, sexual exploitation, and criminal activity.
“I leave the house by 6am to sell vegetables at the Kongowea market. My three children remain at home alone or go out to play in the neighbourhood. I worry every day. Anything could happen,” says Easther Atieno, a single mother of three from Maweni in Mombasa.
Easther's fears are shared by other parents who say the absence of youth centres, community holiday programs, or safe playgrounds forces children to spend time in unsafe spaces such as street corners, video dens, or even boda boda stages. These areas are known to attract older idle youth who engage in practices that are unsafe for children, among them drug abuse.
Students from various secondary schools in Nyeri head home after closing on September 15, 2022.
Photo credit: Joseph Kanyi | Nation Media Group
“School is the only structured environment many of these children know. Once they’re home for a month or more, with no one guiding or watching them, they become easy targets for crime or abuse,” says Ms Mebakari Ali, a community health officer in Tiwi, Kwale County.
She observed that school holidays often come with a spike in cases of child neglect, defilement, early pregnancies, child labour, and substance abuse.
Her sentiments were shared by Principal Magistrate at Kwale Law Courts Ms Lilian Lewa, who said cases of child abuse spike during holidays and hence called on parents to monitor their children closely.
“Unfortunately, many parents work in the informal sector and cannot afford to stay home or take their children to safe daycare or holiday camps. We urge communities and local leaders to take proactive steps in monitoring children during the break,” Ms Ali said.
According to Ms Ali, it is during this season that children, especially those from rural areas and informal settlements, seek job opportunities in quarries, illicit liquor dens, farms, and idling at beaches along the Indian Ocean, places where they are sometimes abused.
She added that spending time online without guidance and restrictions also exposes children to pedophiles. Ms Ali called on county governments and Non-Governmental Organisations to provide structured holiday activities, such as youth and children empowerment programmes.
“In most wards, there are no operational child resource centres. Some are just buildings with no staff or equipment. We need to invest in safe spaces and trained youth mentors to run holiday activities,” said Ms Ali.
Mombasa County Children’s Officer, Mr Gabriel Kitile, advised parents to come up with meaningful programmes that will keep children occupied during the holidays to avoid them being abused. Across the country, some religious organisations and entrepreneurs have initiated plans meant to keep children from engaging in risky practices during the holidays.
Children play at Dunga Beach in Kisumu County after closing school for second term holiday.
In Mombasa, for instance, a local madrassa in Kisauni has organised a two-week mentorship and Quran camp for boys and girls aged 9–14.
“We teach them about character, responsibility, and basic life skills. It also keeps them off the streets,” says Sheikh Suleiman Walid, the programme coordinator.
Mr Paul Akwabi, the chief executive officer at Tech Kids Africa, based in Nyali, Mombasa, says his organisation hosts at least 7,000 children annually, aged between 4 and 24 years. Started in 2019, the centre equips children with 21st-century skills including programming, coding, gaming, robotics, animation, mobile application development, 3D modelling and printing, gamification, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) safety.
“We teach kids how data is picking up content in our environment, how to use AI responsibly, and even how to protect themselves against online paedophiles,” said Mr Akwabi.
He noted that the government’s ban on tuition, once a default holiday solution, left many children, especially from low-income households, vulnerable during school breaks. To close the gap, Tech Kids has partnered with organisations that sponsor children from informal settlement areas to access these vital skills.
"We have come across cases where kids borrow phones from adults to play games. The adults consume pornographic content, and while playing games, the adverts that pop up are of pornography. The kid ends up feeding on pornographic content. You are responsible for any child around you. For parents, if you can give your child a phone, get them a phone. It’s safer for them to own a phone than to borrow a parent’s one, where they might be exposed to unsafe content. The curiosity around tech is high, yet many children in our communities have no space to explore it,” he said.
Stakeholders involved in children's affairs are calling on both county and national governments to prioritise child safety by establishing well-funded community centres and partnerships with civil society groups to run structured programs during breaks.
“We cannot afford to have a generation that is only safe while in school and abandoned during holidays,” says Ms Mariam Abdulrahman, a community child defender in Mombasa.
Community coordinator and SRHR facilitator at the Samba Sports Youth Agenda, a community-based organisation, Ms Abigael Ndizi, said they have tailored programs that focus on raising awareness about GBV among girls and boys, particularly targeting adolescents and youths. With a special emphasis on understanding and preventing sexual and gender-based violence, the organisation is helping to equip the future generation with the knowledge and skills needed to protect themselves and their peers from abuse.
One of the most impactful programs run by the organisation is Shared Future, a unique initiative where young people, both boys and girls, are brought together to engage in open discussions, training, and awareness campaigns on the dangers of GBV.
“Our aim is to involve all the groups affected by GBV, which includes women, girls, and boys. We focus on creating awareness and making sure that they understand the different forms of abuse they might face and how to respond,” explains Ms Ndizi.
