CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
|
Kenya |
CHILDREN
Child labour, in many forms, is rampant in today’s Kenya
Little Wairimu is barely five years old. Every morning, she positions herself strategically on Nairobi’s busy Aga Khan Walk to beg for money from passers-by. «Uncle nipe shillingi», («Please give me a shilling, Uncle»)—she implores them as they walk past. A few go to their pockets and offer the bare-footed lass a few coins. Most ignore her. So Wairimu has adopted a new technique. Whenever her pleas are not heeded, she fastens her arm onto that of the passer-by and trudges along until the pedestrian, somewhat embarrassed, parts with some money. Even then, only a few people are compassionate enough to do that.
Hidden behind some bougainvillaea shrubs nearby, is Wairimu’s mother and her youngest child, eight month-old Thiong’o, strapped on her back. With two other women, the mother keenly monitors Wairimu’s movements and those of two other young girls. Whenever Wairimu and her young colleagues fail to solicit money or the coins are not coming fast enough, they are scolded. At times, their mothers slap them hard and instruct them to refine their techniques. Whenever Wairimu fails to obtain money from those passing along, one can see the fear in her eyes.
On the streets
Wairimu is not alone. She is just one of the estimated four million children in Kenya engaged in what is essentially child labour. This represents about 41.3% of all children in Kenya aged between six and sixteen.
In urban centres like Nairobi, thousands of children live in abject poverty and find themselves in such situations. The vast majority, like Wairimu, are beggars on the streets of the urban centres. Older children hawk and collect waste papers in order to earn money for their upkeep and those of their families.
Because of dire poverty, most of them live in slums such as Kibera, Korogocho, Kariobangi, Kia Maiko and Mukuru Kaiyaba — all lacking the basic necessities of clean water and toilets.
A good number of these children are children of single-parents, who cannot afford to provide them with their basic needs from their meagre income as employees on plantations or in the houses where they work as maids. Often, many of these children are abandoned by their parents who cannot afford the cost of taking care of them.
On the farms
Child labour is more prevalent in Kenya’s agricultural production areas. In the coffee-producing areas of the Central Province, children often drop out of school to accompany their parents to pick coffee for about Sh50 (US $0.6) per day. Early this year, Kenya’s Minister for Labour, Mr Joseph Ngutu, identified the tea, coffee, pineapple, miraa (khat), and flower plantations as well as the salt-harvesting grounds in Malindi district at the Coast as «notorious» for using child labour.
In the salt-mining firms in Malindi, however, most of the children who were previously employed there, have now taken to other occupations, including, fishing, following concerted campaigns by the government and the International Programme for Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) to control child labour in salt mining firms there.
In Busia district, along the Kenya-Uganda border, children are involved in smuggling activities to earn a living to support their families. So serious is the problem, that today, Kenya is ranked sixth worldwide as a user of child labour. Statistics from the Ministry of Labour indicate that children comprise close to one-quarter of all agricultural workers in Kenya. Of these, 11% are barely ten years old. Many of these children work in extremely hazardous conditions and are exploited for their labour.Those who work in the farms sometimes pick crops still dripping with pesticides or get the chemicals on themselves when forced to spray the crops. They also face poisonous snakes and insects or cut themselves on tough stems and on the tools they use. Such working conditions undermine their dignity and are detrimental to their full development.
In domestic service
Children who end up as domestic workers are usually employed by relatives who pay between Sh300 (US $ 3.75) and Sh500 (US $ 6.25) to their parents back in the rural areas, but undertake to feed and take care of the children.
Sometimes, however, some employers abuse these child domestic workers sexually. These child workers suffer severe damage socially and psychologically. They are cut off from the community, denied rest and play. Unfortunately only about two hundred child labour-related cases are prosecuted annually. The majority go unnoticed.
Experts attribute this sad state of affairs to rampant poverty which they say has hindered the elimination of child labour in Kenya. To fully address the child labour menace, they say, poverty-reduction programmes should be implemented.
One of the biggest contributors to the child labour workforce is the large number of children who drop out of education at the time of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. Last year, out of the more than 500,000 candidates who sat the examination, only about half of them received places in the 3,100 secondary school nationwide.
Child prostitution remains a hidden problem, thriving on its secretive nature and the government’s failure to stamp out this evil. Child prostitutes are highly disadvantaged because they do not have access to or control over their income. Nor do they have the capacity to negotiate safe sex in the course of «plying their trade». Even though Kenya was to the forefront of the campaign to have child prostitution classified as one of the worst forms of child labour, it has been slow in developing strategies to fight it.
Legislation
Last December, Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding which aims at enacting policy and laws to combat the worst forms of child labour, in line with the provisions of the International Labour Organisation Convention Number 182. The Convention requires that countries undertake to pursue a national policy to ensure the effective abolition of child labour, and progressively raise the minimum age for employment.
Experts say that despite all this, child labour is still increasing because of the lack of effective legislation to combat it. They say that Kenya still lacks strategies to address the root cause of the vice through effective policies, laws and programmes. In Kenya, there is a constant call for universal, compulsory and free primary school education. But the calls go unheeded.
The new Children’s Act passed recently which prohibits child labour, sexual exploitation such as prostitution, inducement or coercion to engage in any sexual activity and exposure to obscene materials is certainly a step in the right direction. However, the new law is insufficient because it does not state the penalties which can be imposed on those found guilty of illegally employing children.
ENGLISH CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 2002 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement