KENYA: Street kids sniff glue to survive
Even as the world marked the day of the African child on 16th June, it was not all pomp and glamour for children who have no place to call home, save for the streets. City streets are their safe havens, notwithstanding the harsh environment associated with street life. Our reporter brings to the fore in this article how street children sniff glue and jet fuels in order to survive the harsh conditions.
With the main focus being on “street children”, the Day of the African child revealed a grim situation of children who live in indecent dwellings. Current statistics indicate an increasing number of children in the streets and although African governments are trying to contain the matter, more and more children are living in the streets. Kenya currently records between 250,000 and 300,000 street children across the country.
Are African governments taking stock of these statistics? Have our governments left all the work to the NGOs to speed up the rehabilitation programs of street children? But the question still remains - Why do we still have street children in this day and age?
In Kenya, the issue of street children is nothing new, particularly to city dwellers who rub shoulders with these less fortunate children on a daily basis. To an ordinary Kenyan living a normal life, a street child is a menace. Many shun them as they try to bed for money or food.
Many walk on opposite sides of the streets to avoid the stench that emanates from street ‘homes’. These children are often unkempt in tattered clothes and very dirty. These children are sons, daughters, sisters and even mothers who have relatives across the country. Some have come from homes while others were born and bred in the streets. Their daily life is characterized by begging and sniffing glue. Glue, as we later learn in an interview, offers them instant relief and makes them forget about the harsh conditions of street life.
Our visit takes us to downtown Nairobi, an area that has seen the proliferation of street ‘homes’ whose main inhabitants’ are children with no descent homes. Born and bred in the streets, some of these children have had to adjust to the harsh realities of living a not-so- descent lifestyle. Many want out, but a score of others would rather live on the streets for fear of a new life.
“I really want to leave street life and go to school but where do I start,” wonders one Kinuthia, a 17-year-old boy. He admits that he has heard of the government’s rehabilitation project but doesn’t know how to go about it. “Once in a while, I have seen some of my peers being taken away by some organizations who later help them, but why am I left out?”
Kinuthia, who appears bigger than his age, is a school dropout. Together with his two siblings, the trio left their poverty-infested home in Nairobi’s Kibera slums in search of a ‘better’ life in the streets. He comes from a single parenting home. He tells us that his mother was a commercial sex worker in Kibera and her hard earned cash was not enough to cater for all of them. But Kinuthia is no ordinary street urchin; he engages in activities that gives him money, albeit little.
“I load people’s luggage in carts and sometimes I push the carts to where the person instructs me.” When he is not loading luggage, he occasionally steals, an act he is not afraid of revealing.
“I do pick-pocketing to unsuspecting pedestrians and motorists. I have to eat and feed my brother and sister, who live with me on the streets,” he speaks of his side job.
Sniffing glue
Living on the streets is no easy task and street children have long devised a mechanism to help them cope. Most of them sniff glue and jet fuels, substances that help them forget the hardships of street life.
Fatuma Muthoni is 17 and is six months pregnant. She clutches a dirty bottle full of glue and during our interview, shows us how she sniffs the substance. “I got addicted to glue when I realized I was pregnant,” she tells us, adding that most of her peers are addicted to it.
"It makes you forget you're hungry and also makes us warm during cold seasons.” Oblivious of her status, Muthoni does not care about the unborn baby and the consequences that the glue might have on the baby’s health.
“Here in the streets, we do not feed well. I sniff glue because it fills my empty stomach and also feeds my baby,” she admits out of sheer ignorance. Surprisingly, Muthoni has never been admitted to hospital for any ailments. With no health care, poor sanitation and no food, she puts her trust in God.
“See, I am healthy and yet I haven’t eaten for days. But God is my protection. People walk past us, they ignore our plea and yet we continue to survive,” he notes.
A bunch of boys sniffing glue at a nearby garage tell us that the substance gives one the courage to eat garbage. “If we were leading normal lives, we cannot dare eat garbage but street life has taught us to be tough. Without glue, our lives in the streets would be meaningless.”
Medics say the fumes are highly addictive and the effect is immediate. It also carries a high risk of brain damage, respiratory infections and other diseases that will of course never be treated on the streets.
Street kids sniffing glue
Rape
Rape cases among street children are on the rise. Most girls are raped by their male peers and they have to contend with the consequences of unwanted pregnancies and worse, sexually transmitted diseases or even HIV. These girls cannot seek proper medical care as they have no money or the means to approach health practitioners. What follows is a train of babies born on the streets and when they grow up, they nurture the babies on the same streets. Thus a dire situation of street families is looming.
The plight of street children has seen the attention and sympathy of one Monica Kanini, a middle aged woman who set up a home in one of Nairobi’s estate, to cater for street children.
“I take care of about 200 children who were originally in the streets. I give them food, accommodation and some basic education,” she says. Kanini relies on well wishers for funds to keep her home running. She admits that taking care of these children poses so many challenges.
“Most of these children come from broken homes and hence have no discipline,” she says adding that some run away to go back to the streets where they belong. Most refer to her as ‘mathee’ a slang word meaning mother. She is a glimmer of hope to many destitute children who would otherwise be leading hopeless lives on the streets. With her meager budget, she urges the government and other donors to step in and lift the burden from her.
Poverty, social changes, broken homes are some of the factors that lead to children abandoning their homes for the streets. Mohamed Hussein, the Director of Children Services challenges parents to take good care of their children to avoid them ending up in the streets.
“I implore on parents to take seriously their parenting responsibilities. The Children Act clearly stipulates penalties for failing to undertake this responsibility," he says. He also encourages parents to take advantage of the government-Free Primary Education program that ensures children from poor homes have access to education.
Tired of street life
Most of these children want a different life. Those interviewed by Africa News said they were tired of street life. “All we want is a different lifestyle. What we require is rehabilitation. Most of us would want to go to school like other children,” one states.
This reporter learnt that among them are talented lots who can lead meaningful lives. They have dreams which they hope to accomplish. Some want to become doctors, teachers, pilots and architects.
“We need people to embrace us and not shun us. We too come from homes; we too have parents but we are too poor to lead normal lives,” pleads one Atieno.
Rehabilitation
The government estimates that there are between 250,000 and 300,000 street children across the country. An official in the ministry of Gender and Children Affairs Dr. James Nyikal fears the number could be more. He says cases of neglected and abandoned children moving to streets are increasing, thus prompting the government to increase its rehabilitation measures.
The government plans a fresh census of street families in a bid to increase and improve its intervention programs.
Non Governmental Organizations’ such as Plan International help in complementing governments’ efforts in responding to issues of vulnerable children including those on the street. An official at this NGO admits that rehabilitating a street child is not easy.
“Rescue and rehabilitation are not easy as these children tend to be strongly independent. They are used to tough life, with no food and proper sanitation.” Most of these children do not adapt to the new life and many run away, back to begging.
“I was taken in a rehabilitation centre but after three weeks I ran away because I couldn’t cope with the stringent rules. In the streets, no one gives you rules,” says Kimani, a former rehab.
Most NGOs tasked with the responsibility of rehabilitating street children admit that Re-socializing these young people can be a tough task.
“Converting these children into new beings is quite challenging and involves social constraints that they are not used to,” says George Nyakora the training director of SOS Children's Villages in Nairobi. He adds that most of these children often find a return to the streets more attractive than a difficult integration into a society that is foreign to them.
A child’s right adviser who declined to be named says the best remedy that the government should take is to prevent this problem.
“Government’s failure to provide adequate employment to the youth has led to street families. Instead of pouring lots of money into rehabilitation centres, the government and other like-minded bodies should create employment for all.”
Street children yearn for better lives and they too want to belong. Whose children are they should not be the question here as they too have homes and families to call their own. All they need is care, concern and love.
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