Poverty Fuels Child Trafficking in Central

from All Africa

East African Standard (Nairobi)
NEWS

By Bancy Wangui
Nairobi

Delight is written all over Alice Wanjiru's face as she narrates how she landed at a centre for abused children. At 13, Wanjiru has done household work and slept on pavements in several towns since being orphaned by HIV/Aids.

The first born in a family of five, she became the breadwinner, although she had no idea how she could fend for her siblings. Then one day, her grandmother ordered her to accompany a stranger who had visited them.

Robert Ndungu, five, demonstrates how he used to weigh scrap metal that would earn him Sh30 per day in Nyeri. With him is Alice Wanjiru, 13, who also did odd jobs to support her orphaned family. Picture by Moses Omusula

"She ordered me to pack my clothes and go with the stranger who would give me a job. She asked me to be sending money," said Wanjiru, who was the in the company of several children rescued from similar circumstances. Wanjiru says she still wanted to pursue her education, but her grandmother's stunning order gave her little option

From her home in Sagana, Kirinyaga district, the stranger took her to Nyeri, where she worked as house help for two days. But her employer complained she was too young and threw her on the streets of Nyeri town. She later found her way to the local police station, from where she was taken to Children and Youth Development Centre in Thunguma village, Nyeri, which currently hosts 88 children.

Like Wanjiru, thousands of children are finding themselves in unfamiliar places, where they are sexually abused and even killed. Child rights activists in the region are worried that the trend could spiral out of control. The Nyeri District Children Officer, Mr Paul Kisavi, says children are being handed to strangers by parents who poverty has pushed to the brink.

Many end up working in deplorable conditions in farms while others get jobs as house helps. Still, there are those like Wanjiru who get abandoned in strange places after their brokers fail to find suitable jobs.

Bureau hawking children

Kisavi says brokers usually lie to parents that children would get well-paying jobs. Parents later LEARN that their children were subjected to hard labour or even prostitution.

Kisavi cites a particular case of an employment bureau in Nyeri town that has been hawking children as young as 10. "The rate at which parents are handing their children to ruthless people who misuse them and waste their capabilities worries me," said Kisavi.

He says that despite one trafficker having been sued several times, she has continued to hawk under age girls with the consent of parents, who say they are forced into it by poverty.

Central Provincial Commissioner, Jasper Rugut, says there are 70,000 school-going children engaged in child labour in the area. The children, he says, have been left out of the free primary education programme. Most of children are working in coffee farms and quarries. According to the PC, the most affected districts are Thika, Murang'a, Maragua and Nyeri.

Child rights officials say horticultural farmers in parts of Kieni West and East Divisions in Nyeri District have a record of recruiting young boys. Others have however been recruited into business. A classic example is that of Robert Ndung'u Gitau, who, only at the age of five, has come to understand barter trade inside out. The boy was forced to sell scrap metals by her mother.

Gitau would wake up at 6am and walk to Grogon garage in Nyeri town's Majengo slum to collect scrap metal. He would then carry the pieces to his trading partner who would weigh the package and pay anything between Sh20 and Sh30. His parents had pushed him into the business due to extreme poverty.

"My mother would use the money to buy food," he said. He says that whenever they went to Nairobi to sell the scrap metal, they would survive by either borrowing food or scavenging leftovers. "She used to tell me to look for money either from the streets or from selling metals," said the young boy. Gitau later ended up in the rescue centre after a lady he did not know picked him from Nyeri town.

He says his ambition is to be an army officer and not a businessman. The director of Nyeri's Children and Youth Development Centre, Mr Patrick Miheso, says they rescue children from traffickers weekly. "They come here in very bad condition and some of them have to be put on a special diet," said Miheso.

Child rights activists say although current laws address certain aspects of trafficking - such as kidnapping, rape or exploitation - they fail to punish perpetrators for the crime itself.