The chairperson of Kirinyaga Media Queens Association, Bancy Lole said it is disturbing that many street girls under the age of 18 are expectant. “We have observed that there are so many teenage girls in the streets. And as we speak, most of them are expectant, yet they are under 18 years,” she said.
Lole appealed to the county government to use Community Health Promoters (CHPs) to reach out to the girls so they can start visiting health facilities for prenatal clinics. She also wants them sensitised on prevention of early pregnancies and sexually transmissed diseases.
Lole said many children have left their homes as a result of gender-based violence, negligence by parents, and the and the death of parents, while others are as a result of poverty. She called on well-wishers to chip in and help the children get life skills, saying they also exhibited talents that, if nurtured, could enable them to be self-reliant in life.
“Let well-wishers come onboard and partner with us so that we can find ways of ensuring those who would like to go back to school get a chance to do so, while those willing to join vocational training institutions can be assisted to be enrolled,” she said.
She called on the county government to consider coming up with a training programme that will accommodate the children in their many polytechnics for free so they can pursue courses of their choice and start income-generating projects for self-reliance.
Street Families in a function organised by Kirinyaga Media Queens in Mwea town.
“This can help reduce the large number of street families. We are cognizant of the fact that the results can’t be immediate, but we are confident the number will go down with time,” she said. She attributed the increase in the number of street families to the town’s rapid growth and high circulation of money from rice growing.
“From our observations, Mwea town is growing at a high rate compared to other towns in Kirinyaga, with a lot of activities happening, thus requiring cheaper labor. This has created room for children to get casual jobs who later turn out to be street children since what they get cannot support them,” she said.
She also called for the introduction and implementation of punitive measures by relevant authorities against parents who neglect their children, pushing them to end up in the streets.
Bancy Lole urged the county assembly of Kirinyaga to come up with a law that will minimise the street children’s number, thus making those parents who have neglected some of their children face full force of the law, thus enabling those who have families to go back to their families.
The Media Queens said they chose to visit the street children just to put a smile on their faces and appreciate them since the society out there has been so harsh to them yet they face so many challenges since the large number are underage school-going kids.
She spoke at Mwea Town in Kirinyaga County when they donated clothes to the street families and the less fortunate in the society, as well as shared a meal with them. They also donated sanitary towels to street girls and had an opportunity to offer guidance and mentorship to the young girls and women.
Mary Mwai of Kenya Red Cross said there are those who have ended up in the streets due to peer pressure, especially boys, saying such children need counseling to rehabilitate them. Others, she said, are drug users and called on the community to partner with well-wishers in rehabilitating them.
Street family member addressing the meeting in Mwea during an event organised by Kirinyaga Media Queens.
“Our aim is to continue with mentorship because these children need it and they are willing to be mentored,” she said, adding that some of them had shown interest in going back to school. However, the families who spoke to the media said they have of late been victims of police brutality.
They said police have been whipping them, burning their clothes, and at times splashing cold water on their bedding in a bid to drive them out of the streets. Police have been doing so following a wave of criminal activities in the town where business premises have been broken into at night and items stolen.
They called on the police to treat them humanely, saying they are not involved in criminal activities. “What have we done to the police to warrant such kind of treatment? We are just street families using noble means to get our daily bread,” one of them said.
Felix Macharia, a street child, thanked the team for the donation, saying getting a meal in a day for many street families is a tall order.