Shame as Nairobi turns its children into hawkers

Unlike other children who head home to begin working on their homework once school is done, the 11-year-old rushes home to change before picking her rolls of groundnuts, prepared by her mother to hawk around the city. When The Standard met up with her on Tuesday last week, the young girl said she left school for home at around 5pm and her mother had already prepared 200 rolls of groundnuts for her to sell in the city. “I have only made sales worth Sh150. Mother will not be happy if I do not sell everything because she said she had not paid rent,” she said as she persuaded customers to buy from her. It was then 7pm and Fancy told us if luck is on her side, it would take her until 9pm to sell everything.

NOT LUCKY Her younger sister Mbithe, carrying an over-sized bowl, appears to be even more unlucky. The seven-year-old had sold nothing by the time we met her. We ask her how they get to and from the city and Fancy said they rely on bus companies who charge them small amounts in fare while some conductors take a roll which Fancy says is a fair trade. It is not easy talking to this little girl at her Mama Ngina street post as she keeps dashing this way and that trying to persuade people to buy her wares. Fancy tells us there are many others like her and they know each other with each operating in a given street. “Tumejigawa na hakuna mtu ataenda kwa mwingine. (We have split ourselves and no one would dare cross the other’s turf),” she said. Fancy, who tells us her parents are casual labourers, says this is the only way to bring in an additional shilling to the family.

And so she sets out every evening. “I decided to buy groundnuts when I heard my friends saying they are making money in town,” said one of the children who gave his name as John. John lives with his single mother in Mutindwa and she washes clothes to earn a living.

“At times, mum may not get clients and that is when my help comes in,” he said. His target for the week is to get Sh500 profit so that he can buy himself a new school short. John said he has lost his wares a couple of times to county askaris while fleeing from arrest attempts. “I was almost arrested recently. I had Sh300 and was not ready to lose it so I ran away. My biggest worry is them,” he said outside 20th Century building.

These children are also exposed to the biting cold, which could lead to pneumonia, but also to sexual predators since many station themselves outside bars especially over the weekend.

ARREST PARENTS According to Undugu Society Assistant Director for Programmes, Siprosa Rabach, such demands being placed on children is also to blame for them running away and making the streets their home. “What do you think will happen if the child fails to meet the set target?”

A motion moved by Kayole South Ward Rep Elizabeth Manyala, and passed last month, calls for the arrest of parents who let their children hawk in the streets and removal of such children. “These children should be in school. They are young and I am feeling somebody is using them unfairly. Mr Speaker it is like somebody is using them for selfish gain. We should protect these children,” she said when presenting the motion.

Ziwani Ward Rep Millicent Mugadi called upon the county government to collaborate with neighbouring counties to stop the flow of children coming to the city to hawk. The children we interviewed said they rarely get time to do their homework or even bathe as poverty, broken or dysfunctional homes force them to seek work which exposes them to exploitation.

While their situation needs to be urgently addressed, these child hawkers are just the tip of the iceberg with the European Union saying at least 1.9 million children are locked in child labour in the country. The agriculture sector has been identified as the leading employer of minors in Kenya followed by the domestic sector with children falling within the five to 17 years age bracket.

Reference : www.standardmedia.co.ke