TRIBULATIONS OF THE CHILD WORKER - Feature

BY MAURICE ALAL (KISUMU -KENYA)


Kayla Terry (not real name), 12, a resident of Kisumu’s Nyalenda
estate, wakes up every morning at around 5 am and trudges to a nearby
kiosk to fetch water for use in her masters house. Agnes also helps
prepare and serve the family’s meals and sweeps the yard among other
chores.


Agnes has no shoes except a quarter-heel chopped off-blue sandals,
which she always uses to protect her cracked small feet.


The young girl found herself in this dehumanizing situation 3 years
ago after she lost both parents in a fatal road accident along Ahero-
Kisumu highway.


Agnes who was the second born child was later adopted by an uncle who
resides in Eldoret but her stay did not last for long as circumstances
forced her to escape from the house as a result of being mistreated by
the family members.


While at her uncle’s place, Agnes was forced to sleep on a thin, torn
mattress and was frequently beaten on the slightest provocation of the
uncle’s wife while she fed on food leftovers and droppings from the
family table.


Agnes is a domestic worker, hidden behind a mansion wall that
completely protects some of the worst and notorious perpetrators of
child labour in society.


Child labour which is broadly defined as the employment of children is
often a harsh and exploitative condition with minimal pay but has
remained stubbornly alive across the world both in the developing and
industrialized countries.


The human cost of child labour is immense and leaves children gaunt,
crippled, sick and illiterate.


Perhaps the most important efforts to eliminate child labour among
other forms of abuse throughout the world originate from the
International Labour Organization (ILO) which was founded in 1919 and
has since been transformed into a special agency of the United Nations
(UN).


The organization has introduced several child labour conventions among
its members including a minimum age of 16 years for admission to all
kinds work, a higher minimum age for specific types of employment,
compulsory medical examinations and regulation of right work.


In the late 20th century (ILO) added the worst forms of child labour
to its list which included slavery, prostitution, debt bondage (where
children work to pay off loans owed by their parents) and forced
military service.


A growing concern in recent years has been the increase in
prostitution among youngsters in urban areas. Children have been
forced into prostitution as a result of abject poverty.


According to the 1997 UNICEF report on child labour, most employers
will always try and hire workers who are easier to exploit.

“The most vulnerable and weakest workers are children who are usually
paid less than adults and are often ignorant of their rights or how to
protest against poor working conditions”, says the report.


Poverty, it adds, plays an enormous role in the phenomenon of child
labour. Desperate for money, poor families around the world, Kenya
included are forced to push even young children to increase the
families overall income.


For poor families the small contribution of a child’s income or
assistance at home can make a huge difference between hunger and a
bare sufficiency, the survey further states.


Meanwhile, a study of nine Latin American countries established that
without the income of working children aged 13 to 17 the poverty rate
would increase by 10 to 20 percent.


Back in Kenya, a stroll in the streets of Kisumu city at night will
leave anyone gapping for breath on realizing the age of girls who
frequent most night clubs in the area for prostitution.


Kisumu District Labour Officer, Kephas Odhiambo notes that most of the
girls’ are driven to these joints by a strong urge for earning extra
cash to enable them take care of their poor parents and family
members.


“Because they do not want their parents and siblings to suffer due to
lack of money, the young girls agree to let their bodies be misused by
men for as little as Ksh. 50 in complete disregard of the risk of
contracting the deadly HIV/AIDS virus”, says Odhiambo.


Statistics available at the local labour office indicate that more
than 20,000 underage girls in Kisumu East District have been lured or
forced into commercial sex exploitation by wealthy men.


However, when these child prostitutes manage to escape, they are often
stigmatized and rejected by respective families and communities, says
the official.


A part from prostitution, a high percentage of underage children in
the district are involved in sand harvesting, fishing, cattle herding,
charcoal kilns, brick-making factories and in homes as house maids
just to mention a few areas.


Many of the youths land into such jobs after dropping out of schools
either willingly or as a result of expensive school fees or tuition
imposed on parents by local learning institutions.


A survey by the local education office in 2002 established that most
children drop out of school because the curriculum is very rigid and
boring to an extent that they prefer to look for work instead, which
they find a little interesting apart from earning meager cash.


The survey also cites child labour as owing its existence largely to
outdated customs and traditions among local communities.


“In this part of Kenya traditions play a strong role in exacerbating
child labour with girls as young as 7years old working for years as
domestic servants.


Kisumu East District Children Officer (DCO), Jane Rono says her office
registers up to 200 cases of child abuse cases every month perpetrated
by parents and employers.


However, Rono’s predicament is that most of the cases never see the
light as they pass through the hands of police and labour officers
who, unfortunately get compromised to settle them out of court when
money exchange hands.


“Our efforts to fight child labour in this district has been sabotaged
by our own law enforcers who opts to free suspects before taking them
to court”, laments Rono.


Despite the noticeable alarming shortage of labour inspectors in this
region, the few who have been deployed to work in the district have
failed to enforce laws that would curb the vice.


It is worth noting that some cases involving child labour have been
dropped after labour officials allegedly received heavy bribes from
rich personalities who saw child labour cases as “cash cows” from
which they minted millions of shillings.


According to Odhiambo, Kisumu East District is known for child labour
problems with more than 50% of under age children being forced to drop
out of school to seek employment so as to meet their families’ needs.


Twenty percent (20%) of those desperately seek a living out of
performing household chores at homes in various towns and local market
centers while the remaining percentage are engaged in the vast maize
farms dotting the district as harvesters.


Despite earning meager incomes out of the odd jobs, the minors endure
the worst kind of mistreatments in their masters’ houses; so as to
meet their basic needs, adds the District Children’s boss (Rono).


Cases of children as young as 11 years, working for 12 hours a day in
maize fields are some of the ‘normal’ surprises a visitor encounters
in the district.


It is also ‘normal’ to encounter cases of young children toiling in
hot acid brick-making factories spread out in the district.


Child labour conventions set by the ILO which many world nations have
flouted with impunity clearly sets the minimum working age and time
for specific types of employment.


The laws, however, vary from country to country. Often there are
different minimum ages for various types of work. For example, in
Egypt, the legal minimum for all work is 12 years, in Philippines 14,
in Peru the minimum age in agriculture is 14, in industry and in deep
Sea fishing it is 16years.


Unfortunately, minors in Kenya work for long under unfavorable hours
in the full glare of law enforcers and in total contravention of the
new constitution.


It is, therefore, a challenge to the Government, local and
international organizations involved in the campaigns against child
labour to ensure that the laws are strictly adhered to if we hope to
protect the minors from child labour in Kenya.


As for now, the best we can do is keep our fingers crossed and pray
for divine intervention that the problem will either melt away or the
various stakeholders will take the bull by the horn and tackle it head
on. What do you think?


END