Kenya's Children - 3

Child Labour
Kenyan children often have to go to work in order to earn money so that they and their families are able to eat. From a very young age, they become involved in a wide range of jobs, doing everything from manufacturing to selling products.

In total, around 41.3% of children in Kenya are economically active. Many children starting working as young as the age of 10 years old, and a large percentage of these children are denied the opportunity to go to school. 5

Other children work in order to provide food for themselves, as they live on the streets and have no family. They hunt through the city dumps for items that can be recycled, such as plastic, paper, scrap metal, and glass. They receive barely anything for the items they find for the middlemen to sell. Often, all they get is a scrap or two of old food that was about to be thrown away.

The dangers facing children who work on the streets include receiving cuts and injuries from sharp scrap materials, which can lead to infection, and loss of fingers, toes, or even limbs in extreme cases. They also suffer the risk of being bitten by rats or poisonous snakes that live in the areas where the children are forced to scavenge. 6

Children working on the street have to work in dangerous conditions, are subject to beatings by their employers, and are sometimes sexually abused.

Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is sadly a way of life for many Kenya children, especially for those who live on the streets. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old experience their first forms of sexual abuse by gangs. In order to initiate a child into a street gang (which they want to do in order to increase their safety), the child must be raped.

And it's not only young girls who get raped. Boys are also sexually abused. However, it is not just street children who are subject to this sort of abuse. Some parents sell their children to strangers, because they need the money. They know that their child will become nothing more than a sex slave, but they turn a blind eye. 7

Regrettably, many young girls turn to a life of prostitution after being raped, as it is one of the only ways they can earn money. Some young boys end up being rent boys, for the same reasons.

Trafficking also occurs in Kenya , and many children are taken to other countries and sold as sex slaves. They are made to work in brothels or to marry much older partners.

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