Human Trafficking in [Kenya] [other countries]Street Children in [Kenya Child Prostitution in [Kenya] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the
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FEATURED ARTICLES *** Step up sensitization on the plight of street children,
urges VP VPPS, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Oct 01, 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] Mr. Awori
said Macharia Mwangi,
Daily Nation, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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Street children kill guard in night raid Mathias Ringa And Eunice Machuhi, Daily Nation, June 10, 2008 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] One security guard was killed and
another is fighting for his life at ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/kenya.html [accessed 6 June 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor 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 Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61575.htm [accessed 16 February 2011] 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 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 Street Life in 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 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 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, 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 Voice of www.issuepost.com/news/story/12019.html [accessed 6 June 2011] The Undugu
Society released a study in October on glue and other substance abuse by "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 ( 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] 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. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, Eldoret, 8 August 2008 www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79707 [accessed 6 June 2011] William, 11, sleeps in an alleyway
between two shops in Eldoret town of UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN PlusNews, 208.106.251.104/Report.aspx?ReportID=79505 [accessed 6 June 2011] 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 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. Street children kill guard in night raid Mathias Ringa And Eunice Machuhi, Daily Nation, June 10, 2008 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] One security guard was killed and
another is fighting for his life at The Protection Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/kenya.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO THE
TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - It is estimated that 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 This article has been archived by World Street Children News
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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. 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] 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. Macharia Mwangi,
Daily Nation, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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. 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] 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.” David Macharia, The Nation, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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. Editorial, Daily Nation, 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. Step up sensitization on the plight of street children,
urges VP VPPS, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, Oct 01, 2007 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] Mr. Awori
said Arno Kopecky,
The Nation, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [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 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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. 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. David Macharia, Daily Nation, 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 www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2007/31/c2592.html [accessed 6 June 2011] "I'm so amazed to be here in For 2 runaway brothers, an education comes against
tremendous odds International Herald Tribune, 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. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/InDepthMain.aspx?InDepthId=28&ReportId=69987&Country=Yes [accessed 6 June 2011] “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 Street children given new life Jaclyn Cosgrove, University Wire, (Daily O'Collegian) (U-WIRE) This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] Each day parents across the “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, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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 [accessed 6 June 2011] Official estimates put the number
of street children in 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 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] PRESENTATION OF REPORT - One of the greatest challenges Street Children, A Waiting Disaster Richard Oundo, The New Times, This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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, 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 "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 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. 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 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 From street boys to men The East African Standard, 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 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 Ambrose Musiyiwa (amusiyiwa), OhmyNews,
2006-07-25 english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=5&no=293231&rel_no=6 [accessed 17 February 2011] She was a teenage orphan living on
the streets of 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 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 This article has been archived by World Street Children
News and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 June 2011] 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] 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. Agence France-Presse
AFP, 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 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 Twana Twitu
(Our Children) twanatwitucares.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=44 [accessed 9 June 2011] 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 JUVENILE INJUSTICE: Police Abuse And Detention Of Street
Children In 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 SOS
Children: Street Children in 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 Gary Strieker, Cable News
Network CNN, 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, UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN PlusNews www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=31251 [accessed 6 June 2011] 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 " UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN News www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=30520 [accessed 7 June 2011] 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 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
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 Ayaya SO & Esamai
FO -- 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) [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, www.exop.org/pub/fiveshillings.htm [accessed 7 June 2011] 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 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 H2G2, Feb 6, 2002 www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/entry/A691977 [accessed 7 June 2011] PROBLEM - UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=30551 [accessed 7 June 2011] 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, 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 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 A World of Violence - The Daily
Battles of 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 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 - |
Human Trafficking in [Kenya] [other countries]Street Children in [Kenya Child Prostitution in [Kenya] [other countries]