Celebrating the Day of the African Child - Reject Online 109

Celebrating the Day of the African Child June 1- 30, 2015

ISSUE 109

A monthly newspaper by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service

Raft of demands from Kenyan children T

By HENRY OWINO

he Kenya Children’s Assembly (KCA) is worried by increasing cases of child abuses in the country. The, assembly made up of children below the age of 17 has declared that children’s rights are immovable and non-negotiable. It notes that children’s rights are part of Kenyan laws supported by international instruments.

The Assembly has, therefore, come up with nine major resolutions it wants implemented by the two levels of government to protect children from adverse abuses.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) grants all children and young people aged 17 and below comprehensive rights. The Children’s Assembly is now calling upon government agencies to implement the UNCRC to the letter.

Sensitization

The Children’s Assembly wants all levels of government to sensitize communities and use locally available structures to report issues on child rights violation. The Children’s Assembly appreciates laws that advocate for and protect the rights of children.

For example, harmonization and enforcement of labour laws with regard to minimum entry age in the labour market for children “We want awareness of the children’s rights to reach parents, children and the community at large with an emphasis on the importance of a child’s education,” urges Amina Ahmed from Wajir County. She adds: “Otherwise, communities with retrogressive cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forces child marriages will not obey some laws such as the Prohibition of FGM Act.” Other laws that directly relate to children include the Children’s Act, Sexual Offences Act and Protection Against Domestic Violence Act. Ahmed notes that the laws should address social and cultural practices that are harmful and affect the holistic development of a child.

Members of the Children’s Assembly have noted realized child labour is another problem facing children that is

attributed to poverty.

The Assembly notes the need to improve economic status of households and create an enabling environment for people to secure income generating activities like what is being done with the youth in the slums in conjunction with the National Youth Service.

Poor families cannot provide basic needs and, therefore, children get engaged in economic activities to earn a living for the whole family. The work is usually detrimental to children’s emotional, social and physical development.

In most cases it leads to absenteeism, school drop-out and even childtrafficking. This is usually reflected in national examination results either at primary or secondary school levels.

The Children’s Assembly proposed that local school administrations to be at the forefront in advocating for chilContinued on page 4

Pupils of Magoso Primary School in Kibra slum going through a Reproductive Health Rights awareness class. Below: Girls wearing t-shirts with Reproductive Health information preparing for an awareness walk. Pictures: Henry Owino and Thomas Bwire

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

Ibrahim Ali gives Mandera County first historic ‘A’

By Parsoi ole Joto

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Ibrahim Abdi Ali is carried by his schoolmates as they celebrate his excellent performance in KCSE. Picture: Ole Joto

student in Mandera County has made history after scoring an A in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

Ibrahim Abdi Ali, a former student at Sheikh Ali Secondary School in Rhamu town, famous as a hotspot of clan conflict scored 81 points.

In a telephone interview, Ali attributed the success to hard work and perseverance throughout his school life.

“This did not come on a silver platter. I challenge my colleagues to keep the fire burning, and hard work is the answer,” he advices.

Ali recalls going through a difficult time while in school

including dropping out of class in Form Two. However, he was rescued by school authorities at Sheikh Ali High.

The second born in a family of 13, Ali who wants to study medicine narrates how he stood firm and kept studying hard despite the inter-clan clashes that ravaged Rhamu Sub-county.

Ali says he also had to overcome drought, insecurity and many others challenges and managed to put a smile on the faces of Mandera County residents and the entire Northern Kenya.

As he waited for the results to be released, Ali did not just idle around, he managed to get a part time at Towfiq Secondary School.

Mandera County Governor

Ali Ibrahim Roba noted Ali’s outstanding performance saying it’s an indication that education performance is on track in the county.

“We attribute this to the constant effort by the county government in uplifting education standards despite the fact that education is not yet devolved,” Roba said.

The Governor sent his congratulatory message to students, parents and teachers for their resilience in the face of all the challenges the county faced.

Mandera Secondary School, the biggest boys’ school in the county scored a historical 10 A-, 15 B+, 16B and 37B-.

The leading girl is from Moi Girls’ Secondary School which is the largest girls’ school in the county.

Nakuru’s poor children to benefit from schools’ upgrade

By Larry Kimori

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ducation is widely considered one of the most promising paths for individuals to realize productive lives and as one of the primary drivers of economic development.

Although the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) programme in Kenya has increased access to primary education especially for poor households, additional costs continue to hinder its access by many children.

Against this backdrop, the Federal Republic of German under its financial cooperation funding has helped Kenya’s efforts to increase access to education by supporting primary and secondary schools in poor areas.

This year, Nakuru County received a grant of KS 548 million to upgrade Nakuru West Secondary School, Heshima and Kaptembwo primary schools.

In 1982, Heshima Primary School was hived from Kaptembwo Primary to cater for the swelling numbers from the densely populated Kaptembwo Estate that is adjacent to Lake Nakuru National Park.

The twin schools, which sit on a 10 acre piece of land, are home to over 4,000 pupils from less privileged households in the neighbourhood.

According to Salome Ng’eno, head teacher Heshima Primary School, the project is a blessing to the children from informal settlements whose access to high quality education has remained uneven over the years depending on a family’s income and background.

Poverty

Ng’eno admits that majority of Kenyan youth from poor, rural regions and slums coupled with the lack of adequate educational infrastructure has made it difficult to develop skills, study for a dream job and thus climb the social ladder.

“These advancements in building a twin model school that will cater for children with special needs, an ultra-

modern stadium and multipurpose halls among other facilities present the county’s poor citizens with a possible path to greater economic opportunity,” she notes.

According to Ng’eno, congestion in classes will be reduced from the current 85 pupils per class to the recommended 50 to ensure quality delivery by teachers.

During the hot season, children sweat during afternoon lessons because of poor ventilation. Ng’eno notes that the new classes coming up will take up more children, each will comprise of four streams from the present three.

Ng’eno is optimistic that the new model twin school will solve the insti-

Heshima Primary School Head teacher Mrs Salome Ng’eno (red top) inspects the construction of the model twin school at Kaptembwo and Heshima Primary Schools in Nakuru.

Picture: Larry Kimori tutions’ perennial problem with storm water that used to flood the playing fields with the construction of raised stadium for various outdoor and indoor games.

“It’s important for social mobility that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds gain access to comprehensive and high-quality primary and secondary education,” says Ng’eno as she applauds the project.

According to Joseph Rutto, Deputy Governor Nakuru County, the funding will turn around the livelihoods of children from disadvantaged back-

grounds in urban poor areas through the access of quality education.

“The social divide among children from informal settlements will be bridged through the provision of quality educational services and in time improve performance,” observed Rutto.

The children from the two schools have been sensitized on how to share facilities and behave as one community in the management and use of resources.

To ensure the project’s sustainability, Ng’eno observed that each school

will receive four shops that will be rented out to generate income for the maintenance of the massive infrastructure.

After completion, the model school will comprise of multi-purpose halls, a borehole, swimming pool, volleyball, handball, football and basketball pitches among other facilities.

The project is being overseen by Engineer Lin Hai Wei from China Chanzu Construction Company and the schools’ management boards in conjunction with the County Government of Nakuru.

ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

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Sex tourism mars girl child education in Kwale County

By OMAR MWALAGO

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any girls in the tourist zone of Ukunda and Diani in Kwale County are yet to enjoy the fruits of

education.

The environment they live in has forced majority of them to drop out of school due to unwanted pregnancies and early marriage.

Sex tourism and child prostitution is the thin line between business and child protection.

Though hotels have signed the Code of Conduct to ensure that no child prostitution or exploitation takes place within their premises but still children engage in sexual activities in big hotels and private villas due to uncontrolled facilities.

According to Steven Gitau, Kwale County Children’s Coordinator, lax laws have led to high cases of sex tourism, teenage pregnancy and early marriages. He notes that the number of girls dropping out of school is alarming.

“This trend is worrying and the Government should come up with strict laws and stiff penalties to curb sex tourism in the region because this is the only way to end this menace and to promote girl child education,” urges Gitau. He notes: “While leaders blame the parents, others blame sex tourism especially during the high tourist season.”

Solution

Gitau notes that sex tourism has lured many girls out of school, adding “most girls roam the beaches looking for tourists and riches”.

“You know most girls in this region hail from poor backgrounds so they tend to think that if they get a tourist then their problems will be solved but instead they end up being miserable,” Gitau observes.

“When we now come to the issue at hand, that is commercial sexual exploitation of children, we have specific areas where sexual exploitation of children takes place depending on which form we are talking about,” he notes.

Gitau lists down the various form of exploitation at different levels as sex tourism, child prostitution, early mar-

riages and teenage pregnancies.

He points out to Diani area in Msambweni Sub-county a being challenged in terms of the numbers children who are exposed to sexual exploitation.

In Kinango Sub-county along the highway, a lot of sexual exploitation of children by the long distance drivers is experienced.

“We have not had an intervention in that area which has been kind of neglected by non-state agencies that operate within the county,” explains Gitau.

Prostitution

On issues of child prostitution the status in the county is wanting. “We cannot deny that child prostitution is going on and the girls link it to their parents and guardians,” says Gitau.

He explains: “You find a girl who tells you that she has been forced by the parents so that she can be able to substitute income within the family.”

Gitau blames the trend on traditions, poverty and immorality.

Early marriages are a problem that is faced in all sub-counties of Kinango, Msambweni, Matuga and Lunga Lunga in the county.

According to Masoud Bungale, chairman Kwale Welfare Education Association, some parents are forcing their young daughters to be married for financial gain.

Bungale notes that there are many cases reported where parents encourage their daughters to be married so that out of that dowry, they can educate their sons.

“We have very many cases of old men aged above 50 years being brought to court for having married underage girls and this is a big challenge,” says Bungale.

“Now we have a different scenario

Kenya has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Unfortunately some of them secretly promote sex tourism involving children. Below: Kwale County Children’s Coordinator Steven Gitau speaks to the members of the press on the negative effects of sex tourism.

Pictures: Omar Mwalago & courtesy where children are getting married to children. You get a girl of 14 years and a boy of 16 years getting married and at times it is the girl who is older than the boy,” says Bugale. He notes: “I want to admit that we have a challenge in terms of handling that issue which needs a lot of life skills within the schools.”

According to Bugale: “Most girls are impregnated during school holidays.

Others meet their fate when they attend weddings and funerals.”

“We have very many cases of old men aged above 50 years being brought to court for having married underage girls and this is a big challenge.”

— Masoud Bungale - Kwale Welfare Education Association

Bugale notes that hardship caused by poverty makes the girls vulnerable to early marriage which they view as an escape. He says that despite major campaigns to keep girls in school most parents are unwilling to cooperate.

The biggest challenge within the community is the belief that when someone makes a girl pregnant, the only option available is for them to get married.

This problem has not gone unnoticed and leaders in Kwale County are seeking a solution to the issue that has gravely affected academic performance.

Juveniles

According to Gitau out of all the cases that are pending in court, 50 per cent of the responsible parties are both below 18 years.

“This is a problem that is now a huge

challenge to the county making law enforcement difficult,” Gitau laments.

According to Fatuma Achani, Kwale County Deputy Governor, the girl child’s education is the key priority in their government.

Achani notes that a big percentage of girls are not going to school in Kwale County and the entire Coast region as a whole.

“A big percentage of girls in this county have not been going to school and this is as a result of parents not seeing the importance of educating a girl,” Achani laments.

She adds: “Girls also have a right to go to school. There are parents who force their daughters to get married so that they can get money. This is very wrong and is in fact a criminal act and anyone found doing this should face the law.”

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

Herding livestock leaves the boy child challenged in education

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By Parsoi Ole Joto

hirteen year-old Abdi Mahmoud together with Abdi Digale, 14 and Hassan Gedi, nine, hail from Abdtsamad Village, Dertu, Garissa County.

They are among many children in the northern frontier district who look after livestock on behalf of the parents at the expense of going to school.

Explaining through an interpreter, the boys say they have been away for two months taking care of over 100 camels.

“Our greatest enemy is the lion and not the fear of people the government is fighting,” says Mahmoud, mesmerized by the English and Kiswahili languages spoken by those stranded, as he expresses deep desire to join school.

With a deadly knife stashed inside a kikoy (wrap) he is wearing, Gedi wishes he could stop looking after his father’s camels and go to school. “My dream is to become a pilot,” Gedi says.

Gedi has never been out of this village and has great stories about Garissa town. He inquires “if it was true that there existed buildings with several floors and made of concrete”.

Realities

The herders are among thousands of young children from dry lands whose access to education is denied by the harsh realities of life in arid and semi-arid areas.

The plight of children from North Eastern Kenya has attracted the attention of the Education Cabinet Secretary, Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, who raised alarm when he announced last year’s Kenya Certificate Primary Education (KCPE) examination results.

About 32 out of 47 counties have net enrolment ratio of 80-90 percent. About 15 out of 47 counties that recorded relatively low primary net enrolment rate of below 80 per cent are in arid and semi-arid parts of the country.

“Although the national net enrolment rate is 95 percent, suggesting that Kenya is on track to achieve the 100 per cent Millennium Develop-

Jacob Kaimenyi, Cabinet Secretary for Education. Picture: David Mbewa ment Goal target, most counties will not meet Kenya, pupils have to walk for long distances to this target unless targeted interventions are put in school. Even where the Government has estabplace,” argues Eldah Onsumu. lished boarding schools in dry areas, enrolment At secondary school level, the net enrolment rates are still low.” rate is even relatively low and there are wide reThe Constitution has introduced devolution of gional disparities. governance structures and transformation of key According to Onsumu, an expert in research education institutions to ensure that all public serand education matters, addressing inequalities in vices, including education are accessed in all parts basic education in Kenya need to be made a priof Kenya. ority.

“However, expansion of education facilities “It is clear that the national government needs for sustainable education may require strong to confront various socio-economic factors in orpartnerships and mobilization of resources at all der to reduce inequalities of access to schooling,” levels,” says Onsumu who is a researcher at Kenya says Onsumu, adding “the task should not be left Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis entirely to the government”.

(KIPPRA).

“Learning facilities in deficit areas should be expanded while ensuring available resources are In arid and semi-arid lands, the high mobility efficiently utilize,” Onsumu advises. She notes: of communities limits access to schooling.

“The government and other stakeholders should “More boys and girls are unlikely to enrol in promote development of mobile schools as a schools, creating regional disparity in schooling. means of expanding access, especially among noAn emerging trend in some regions is that there madic communities.” are more boys than girls out of school, while in Expanding provision of pre-primary educaother regions more boys are in school compared tion and integrating the same into basic education to their female counterparts,” explains Onsumu. is seen as critical in ensuring automatic progresShe adds: “In the arid and semi-arid parts of sion. This requires strategies aimed at education

Enrollment

expansion which should address factors that make education unaffordable, including strengthening poverty mitigation measures across regions.

Kaimenyi appreciates efforts have been made by the Government to ensure both boys and girls access education, but would wish to see factors that hinder the boy-child engaging in herding be investigated and a solution found.

“The factors are within and outside the education sector, and include social, cultural and economic factors,” says Kaimenyi.

In some parts of Kenya, access is constrained by retrogressive socio-cultural practices, high and increasing costs of schooling despite the public subsidies; lack of fees, especially among the low income groups; inadequate direct schooling requirements such as uniform, and poor school environment.

Despite the elimination of school user fee, there are still direct and indirect costs that hinder access to schooling at both primary and secondary education levels. These costs include school fees and extra levies, and costs for uniforms, school development programmes and transport.

Labour

As a result, many children from relatively poor backgrounds and in households with a large number of children may not go to school, but rather opt to engage in child labour to supplement family income.

Despite the expansion in schooling and high rates of participation in basic education, there are still worrying inequalities in access, especially among low income groups.

According to Onsumu, given the impact of poverty on enrolment, the Government and development partners are perceived as important partners who can provide programmes for conditional cash transfers for education.

Other strategies that would enhance environment for girls to be in school include provision of safe water and separate toilets for boys and girls, bath facilities, sanitary wear and privacy related to management of menstruation.

“Providing material incentives such as school uniforms or scholarships,” Onsumu reiterates.

Raft of demands from Kenyan children Continued from page 1

dren’s access to basic needs and rights in barazas. Schools should engage children in extracurricular activities during school holidays and perpetrators of the harmful cultural practices must face full force of the law.

To improve the situation, the Children’s Assembly recommends that children’s court should be delinked from adult courts in all counties. They reiterated the need to increase the number of magistrates dealing with children’s cases.

According to the Children’s Assembly, magistrates and prosecutors dealing with children’s cases should be taken through custom made training on children’s issues for them to be able to appreciate the gravity of the problems being brought before their courts.

“The police should be thoroughly trained and supervised in their performance on child protection and Child Protection Units (CPUs) constructed with adequate equipment in all police stations,” says Robert Ndwiga, Embu County. He reiterates: “We want punitive measures taken against officers who compromise or refrain a child from accessing justice.”

Ndwiga urges: “We want the capacity of children officers in terms of human resource, finance and facilities enhanced so as to enable them cope with the rising cases of child abuses throughout the country.”

When communities engage in armed conflicts in the name of protecting themselves and their resources, most children are involved in conflicts. They fight using firearms, machetes, spears, bows and arrows among other crude weapons.

The Children Assembly recommends that Kenyans be sensitized to accept and embrace diversity as well as seek alternative interventions from the government in case of conflict over resources. Communities and county governments need sensitization on disaster preparedness. They should also put in place mitigating measures in the event that a disaster occurs.

Environment

“Communities can be encouraged to take care of their environment by planting trees in landslide prone areas,” proposes John Onyango, Kisumu County.

The “honourable members” realized that in most areas in Kenya, especially the marginalized zones, basic amenities are lacking. Available ones are situated over long distances making it difficult for children to access the services. This is despite the fact that there has been mushrooming of schools, most of which have not been licensed by the Ministry of Education and lack adequate facilities to offer quality education.

More importantly, Early Child-De-

“We want awareness of the children’s rights to reach parents, children and the community at large with an emphasis on the importance of a child’s education.”

— Amina Ahmed velopment and Education (ECDE) has for a long time been a preserve private institutions with limited facilities sponsored by government.

In unison, Assembly challenged county governments to allocate more resources for child protection facilities.

On the other hand, the Assembly urged the national government to allocate more resources to construct adequate facilities to meet children’s basic needs such as hospital and classrooms, desks and latrines in schools among other facilities.

“To guard it, punitive measures to be put in place to curb misappropriation of public resources,” suggests Beatrice Kemunto from Kisii County. She notes: “A wide spectrum of stakeholders should supplement both county and national government efforts to support construction of Child Protection Centres.”

Governments have also been urged to ensure better working conditions and remuneration packages for its employees to avoid unnecessary strikes

which paralyze quality service delivery.

Members of the Children’s Assembly proposed that government deploy enough trained teachers to schools to reduce imbalance of teacher-pupil ratio especially in rural areas.

In addition, the government should employ trained counsellors to handle children’s issues as opposed to guidance and counselling by teachers.

In areas that are prone to wildlife and other risks, members of the Children’s Assembly said the government to consider putting up boarding schools to avert risks. They also asked for release of school funding within the stipulated time to avoid delay and disruption of service delivery.

Challenge

The Ministry of Education was challenged to be more vigilant and take punitive action against investors operating institutions of learning that do not meet standards set out by the Ministry.

The county governments were encouraged to train, employ ECDE

teachers and construct ECDE centres and if possible mainstream them into public primary schools.

The Children’s Assembly noted that for a long time children with special needs have been viewed as lesser human beings. Parents of children with disabilities have often been accused of hiding such children and neglecting them. In most cases these children do not attend school and when they attend facilities and services available do not consider their special needs.

Facilities for special needs children are few. The Children’s Assembly recommends that the government to consider tax exemption for parents taking care of children with special needs to ease their burden. It should prioritize sponsorship for children with special needs in schools and subsidize cost of learning materials and equipment used by such children.

Construction of more special needs schools and employment of adequate teachers specialized in the area was also recommended. Mainstreaming such schools into public schools will allow such children access quality education.

The Assembly wants the government to deliberately demystify negative perceptions of differently-abled persons and create public awareness to assist such children access their basic rights like education, medical services among others.

ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

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Education for all remains unfinished agenda for Kenya

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By ROBERT NYAGAH

frican states have largely lagged behind in achieving Education for All (EFA) measurable goals as set 15 years ago within the Millennium Development Goals framework.

As the deadline fast approaches, what is not clear is if there will be fulfilment of the set of goals that countries would have to reach if they were to achieve education for all.

According to Anthony M. Wanjohi, Director Education for All Global Monitoring Report, although Kenya has made notable progress, it failed to reach measurable education for all goal. These include universal primary education, halving adult illiteracy rates and securing gender parity in both primary and secondary education.

Wanjohi notes: “Kenya is not alone because out of 20 countries farthest away from achieving the Education for All goals, 16 are in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

The emerging worries arise out of the fact that 15 years ago world leaders agreed to a set of goals that countries would have to reach if they were to achieve Education for All. The third of countries that have achieved all the measurable goals are predominantly highincome countries in Europe and North America.

“Only half of countries around the world have achieved the most politically supported and well-funded goal of universal primary education,” explains Wanjohi.

While stepping back from the overall assessment, Kenya had set itself a step above other countries since 2000 by increasing access to schools and at the same time increasing number of learners.

Challenges

“Kenya must, however, invest in contingency plans and targeted programs to overcome its present challenges which led to its failure to achieve education for all,” reiterates Wanjohi.

When compared to Ghana, Ethiopia and Burundi, Wanjohi indicates that Kenya seems not to have prioritized education better adding that prioritizing education can bring change in a way that investing in other sectors cannot.

In Kenya, the proportion of children who were both in school and achieving the minimum

Pupils of a school in Kilifi County listen to their teacher as they prepared have a charity walk to raise funds for school development. Picture Robert Nyagah learning standard in mathematics rose from 25 percent to 39 percent over the years.

The report indicates that children from both poor and rich households benefited from the reported progress and further perhaps due to better quality education being provided, the proportion of children reaching the end of primary school increased from 42 percent in 2000 to 62 percent in 2007.

“These are significant achievements although progress does not always equal success. Kenya has more than a million children out of primary school,” Wanjohi notes.

However, as the school-age population increases, it is worrying that the poorest, particularly those living in slums and nomadic children were being left behind.

Wanjohi notes that despite abolishing school fees to break down the barriers faced by the poorest, those children had enjoyed very little of the benefits.

The situation is made worse by the fact that programs targeting them had been underfunded and limited in scale.

Wanjohi is, however, firm in demanding that Kenya must endeavour to fulfill its promise to

achieve education for all. He insists: “It is time to ensure that clear, measurable and well-funded goals are agreed and adhered to.”

According to Wanjohi, the unfinished Education for All agenda in Kenya must be completed by all countries as states envision a new set of global targets in education.

In fact for many nomadic children in Kenya, school continues to be often held under the shade of a tree with no pens or paper while in urban slums, many children end up in overcrowded, poorly resourced, low-fee private schools.

Girls disproportionately affected by child marriage

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By ROBERT NYAGAH

arly marriages continue to be a major drawback to education and other rights by children in Kenya.

The UNICEF Global Databases, 2014 indicates that globally, one in six adolescent girls — aged 15 to 19 — are currently married or in union.

South Asia has the highest proportion of married adolescents (29%), followed by West and Central Africa (25%) and Eastern and Southern Africa (20%).

According to the report though, data on the number of boys affected by child marriage are limited, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions on its status and progress.

Data

However, available data confirm that boys are far less likely than girls in the same region to marry before age 18 with reports indicating that in eight countries, more than 10 per cent of boys are in early marriage.

International and local organizations have in the recent past intensified campaigns to create awareness against these vices while frequently undertaking research to indicate success and failures as well as encourage battles towards eradication of the negative practices.

UNICEF Global Databases 2014 in one of

the latest report revisits issues on the rights of children as indicated in international conventions reiterating that child marriages and labour remain clear violations of human rights despite their being all too common.

Marriage before the age of 18, indicates the UNICEF Global Databases 2014, was a fundamental violation of human rights yet about one in four women aged 20 to 24 were child brides.

According to the report, many factors place a girl at risk of marriage, including poverty, the perception that marriage will provide ‘protection’, family honour, social norms as well as customary or religious laws that condone the practice.

Further inadequate legislative framework and the state of a country’s civil registration system were partly to blame for the worsening situation even when it is widely known that child marriage often compromised a girl’s development by resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupting her schooling.

In the same way child marriages limited girls’ opportunities for career and vocational advancement apart from placing her at increased risk of domestic violence.

According to UNICEF Global Databases 2014, child marriage also affected boys but to a lesser degree compared to girls.

The report indicates that cohabitation raises the same human right concerns as marriage

because a girl in such a setting takes on the role of caregiver with the assumption often being that she has become an adult, even if she has not yet reached the age of 18.

The package raises concerns due to the informality of the relationship — in terms of inheritance, citizenship and social recognition — because these might make girls in such informal unions vulnerable in different ways than girls who are married.

Agreements

It is clarified by the report that the issue of child marriage is addressed in a number of international conventions and agreements with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, for example, covering the right to protection from child marriage.

“Betrothal and marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage,” the convention indicates.

According the UNICEF Global Databases 2014, the right to ‘free and full’ consent to marriage is also, recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that consent cannot be ‘free and full’ when one of the parties involved is not sufficiently mature to make an informed decision about

a life partner.

The report notes that even if marriage is not mentioned directly in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child marriage is linked to other rights such as right to freedom of expression, right to protection from all forms of abuse and right to be protected from harmful traditional practices.

This is frequently addressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Other international agreements related to child marriage are Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

UNICEF Global Databases 2014 notes that rates of child marriage are highest in South Asia, where nearly half of all girls marry before age 18; about one in six were married or in union before age 15. This is followed by West and Central Africa followed by Eastern and Southern Africa, where 42 percent and 37 percent, respectively of women between the ages of 20 and 24 who were married in childhood.

Worldwide, about one in four women are married before age 18, with the highest rates of child marriages being in South Asia.

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

Over 150 million children engaged in child labour

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By Robert Nyagah

hildren below the age of 18 are constantly being engaged in working under conditions that should be taken up by adults.

According to the UNICEF Global Databases 2014 an estimated 150 million children worldwide are forlornly engaged in child labour.

The report indicates that children worldwide are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are not harmful to them. However, such children gain the classification of child labourers “when they are either too young to work or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development”.

The prevalence of child labour is highest in sub-Saharan Africa while in the least developed countries, nearly one in four children — ages five to 14 — were involved in labour that is considered detrimental to their health and development.

UNICEF Global Databases 2014 clarifies that child labour was guided by three main international conventions: the International Labour Or-

ganization (ILO) Convention No. 138 concerning minimum age for admission to employment and Recommendation No. 146 (1973); ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour.

Recommendation No. 190 (1999); and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, cover conventions which frame the concept of child labour and form the basis for child labour legislation enacted by countries that are signatories.

The UNICEF Global Databases 2014 notes that around 13 percent of children aged five to 14 in developing countries were involved in child labour with the Sub-Saharan Africa having the largest proportion of child labourers (25% of children aged five to 14 years).

In South Asia, 12 percent of children aged five to 14 years perform potentially harmful work compared to five percent of children in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States — the region with the lowest rate of child labour.

In the world’s poorest countries the UNICEF Global Databases 2014 indicates that nearly one

School aged children hawking ropes in Kilifi County while they are expected to be in school. Picture: Robert Nyagah in four children are engaged in work that is potentially harmful to their health.

According to the report, research shows that in almost all regions, boys and girls were equally likely to be involved in child labour and two exceptions were the Middle East and North Africa as well as Latin America and the Caribbean,

where boys are slightly more likely than girls to be engaged in child labour.

Gender disparities, the report notes, are observed in the types of activities carried out with girls far more likely to be involved in domestic work although in “most regions, girls are as likely as boys to be engaged in child labour”.

Child abuse remains a rampant phenomenon

S

By HENRY OWINO

everal efforts made by various agencies to fight violence against children in Africa are being hampered by laws execu-

tion.

The agencies; governments, civil society organizations, communities and regional bodies that aim at either addressing the consequences of harmful practices or elimination of harmful practices altogether meets obstacles to succeed.

Supporting and strengthening families to reduce social exclusion to lower the risk of separation, violence and exploitation remains a major challenge.

However, these child protection systems comprise of a set of laws, policies, regulation and services in across all social sectors, for instance, in social welfare, education, health, security and justice.

To provide support in prevention and response, there is need for protection related to risk at the lowest level of prevention.

The goal of child protection is to promote, protect and fulfill children’s rights from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. This is clearly expressed in UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other human rights. Others are humanitarian and refugee treaties and conventions, as well as the existing national laws and policies.

Ratification

Although some progress has been made in ratifying and harmonizing national legislation with human rights standards, customary and religious laws continue to negate the enforcement of these laws.

According to a study conducted by Plan International between March 2013 and January 2014, due to gaps in legislation and policies, harmful practices, exploitation and other forms of violence against children are widespread across the globe let alone Africa.

“Millions of children, particularly

Child labour is one of the most prevalent form of child abuse in Africa. Picture: Henry Owino girls, continue to suffer from the effects of child marriage which is common in the region of Eastern and Southern Africa (RESA),” part of the report says.

The report says child marriage is still prevalent in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique among others. Though it affects boys, the impact on girls is much larger and with more intensity.

“Parallel to the threats the girl-child is associated with like early marriage, the persistence of the practice of FGM across many African countries is extensive,” indicates the report.

Communities such as Maasai, Kisii, Samburu and parts of Northern Kenya, FGM form an important part to the rites of passage. It marks the coming of age for marriage for the girl child. After

the rite of passage many under-age girls are made to believe that they are adults and ready for marriage.

“Reasons for girl-child marriage varied among countries in RESA, saving family honour which is linked to preserving girls’ virginity and eliminating the possibility or even suspicion of premarital affairs. It is the main reasons for families marrying off their daughters at young age,” the report points out.

Tradition

Poverty also drives some families into marrying off their under-age daughters for financial gain. Poor and traditional families that value boys over girls, have one less mouth to feed when they marry off their girl children. Many often receive gifts and money from the

groom and his family as bride-price in exchange for the bride.

Again well off families may also marry off their daughters early to seal family ties that help forge strategic alliances with other clans. Community pressure is an integral part of the practice of child marriage. The sooner a girl is married, the more secure is her family’s honour and reputation in the community.

According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report, on average one out two girls will be married before their (18th birthday in Kenya. In Uganda, 49 percent of girls are married by the age of 18, and 24 percent of girls below 18 years old, are either pregnant or have already given birth.

Child Marriage Profile in Ethiopia,

about 41 per cent of the women aged 20-24 were married before age 18.

Mozambique has the seventh highest child marriage prevalence rate in the world and the highest in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

Child labour is prevalent in almost in all RESA countries. The Ethiopia Demographic Health Survey 2011 demonstrates that about 27 percent of children aged five to 24 were involved in child labour.

In Kenya, one million children aged five to 17 or eight percent of the total number of children in that age bracket was still working. They remained deprived of quality education, good health and other basic needs.

Children aged between 13 and 17 are the most preferred by traffickers because of their cheap labour potential. More so, girls are preferred because they can be used as domestic servants, commercial sex workers and perhaps are more submissive.

“Up to 17,500 persons are trafficked in Kenya every year and 50 per cent of them are children. The International Organization of Migrations (IOM) reports that Kenya has the highest rate of human-trafficking in East and Central Africa,” the study reveals.

According to Roland Angerer, Regional Director for Plan International in Eastern and Southern Africa, and Lead Researcher, children, particularly girls, are mostly trafficked with a perception that young girls pose less of risk to HIV infection and that they represent the sexual desirability of youth.

Angerer notes that some parents collude with traffickers due to their ignorance of traffickers’ intention or sometimes with full knowledge that the child will be exploited.

“Poverty and economic inequality are primary factors that make people vulnerable to deception and exploitation,” Angerer says regrettably.

He, therefore, calls for an urgent integration and cohesion of the existing laws and the systems to ensure relevant treaties are ratified to seal the gaps

ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

7

Boys and girls find a protector in Priscilla Nangurai

By Jane Godia

W

hile she is known as a saviour for girls who are running away from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as well as early and forced marriages, Priscilla Naisula Nangurai has found herself doing much more.

She is now also rescuing boys from early and forced marriage.

“What is now emerging is that young boys barely into teenage are being forced to marry so that they can take the mantle from their old fathers,” explains Nangurai. She notes: “These are boys born to mothers who married at a very young age to very old men.”

According to Nangurai, Maasai tradition bars boys from taking over from their fathers if they are not married.

“They are, therefore, forced to take on wives even when they have not grown into adulthood.”

Rescue

At her Nanana Winbridge Education Centre, Nangurai has two boys who came in through the Children’s Department. “They were running away from early and forced marriage. We’re keeping them here so they can get education and hopefully, bring change to the community.”

For Nangurai, the journey towards rescuing girls and now boys is as old as she is. “My mission to rescue girls began with me when I was only six years old. This is when my elder sister was withdrawn from school to get married,” says Nangurai. “My sister took me with her and kept on saying that she would give me what she had been denied.”

Nangurai observes: “It’s only now that I realise she was offering me was education.”

Despite being removed from school, Nangurai’s sister was able to build a career as a teacher. “My sister and her husband were my role models.

I admired what they were doing and decided to follow the same career path.”

After high school, Nangurai joined Kenyatta College where she trained as a teacher. “I taught in high school for 10 years before AIM Missionaries approached to come and head the biggest girls’ primary school in Kajiado.

“I joined AIC Girls Primary school in 1981. For three years I did nothing for the girls. They would be forced into FGM, get pregnant or drop out of school but I did not intervene,” explains Nangurai.

Guilt

“I always feel guilty that I was not able to help the girls at that time especially when I see down trodden women and imagine that they could be among the girls who passed through my hands and I was not able to help them.”

It was in her fourth year at the school that one event changed the course of her life. There was this girl called Jane. One day Jane went home for holidays. It was a Thursday. On reaching home she found that plans for her marriage were set for Saturday. Jane sent Nangurai a note saying: ‘Please come and rescue me. I don’t want to be married. I want to be a nurse’.

“Since I was not able to do it myself, I went to the District Commissioner.

He is the one who went on the rescue mission and brought Jane back to school,” explains Nangurai.

Saving Jane came with its problems.

The school had no fence. The community was agitated and there was a lot of interference.

Since then, Nangurai has rescued over 803 girls. “I keep all their records because for each girl there is a file,” she says, adding “I pray that God will give me the strength to help boys and girls whose lives are endangered an education, so that in the end they will go back and help the community.”

Nangurai is proud that some of the girls who she rescued are now holding big positions in the government and within the private sector.

However, the work of rescuing girls was not without its share of challenges.

“I try to reconcile the girls with their parents. This process involves the Children’s Department as well as the administration which includes the chiefs because they know the families better.”

Nangurai says: “Sometimes the reconciliation does not go well because some parents only give lip service. They take the girls home and continue with their plans.”

She observes: “However, I’m glad that most parents now allow the girls to complete secondary education because they think the girls will get jobs easily and they will benefit.”

On April 4, Nangurai was awarded with FIMI Leadership Award 2015 in New York. The award was in recognition of the work she has done saving young girls from FGM and early marriage. The acknowledgement came from International Indigenous Women Forum (FIMI) and supported by TAMAL PAIS.

Recognition

Nangurai becomes the second woman from Africa to receive the recognition that first went to South Africa.

According to Lucy Mulenkei, Executive Director Indigenous Information Network, who picked the award in New York on behalf of Nangurai, FIMI was looking at “women who have done great work and need to be recognised for doing something worthwhile for the community”.

Says Mulenkei: “The award is to motivate Nangurai to keep on doing the good work and it’s a privilege to see such an award coming to Africa.”

She notes “Nangurai was recognised for the work that she has done in giving girls and women a hope for a better life.”

Nangurai says: “When I learnt I was the winner of the FIMI Award, I was astounded. I have received many awards but this was the greatest of them all.” She adds: “I have done a lot of work with women and girls and by extension the community at large, however, this

award is a motivation for me to keep on serving the community.”

When Nangurai retired from being a head teacher at AIC Kajiado Girls’ Primary School after 25 years of service, she thought that her life was now just going to be calm because she had served to the best of her ability. However, this was not to be.

“After retirement I thought I was going to rest but the girls only gave me one year and I could not done them away,” she says.

Hardly had she moved into her retirement home than there was a knock on her door one morning. This was just after one year into retirement. Going to check, she found four girls, they were escaping from FGM as well as early and forced marriage.

Nangurai was at a crossroads.

Where will she take these girls? She was retired and this was not a school.

She decided to take the four girls into her home as she pondered over the next move.

Soon more knocks were heard on her door as more girls felt that she was the only one who could save them from the retrogressive cultural practices that were a barrier to their educational development and a better future.

“I had put up a tin house but Lift Up Africa helped fix the doors and dug the water,” explains Nangurai of the journey that has seen her put up the Girls Rights Attention care and Education (GRACE) and Nanana (Naisula, Naserian, Nabulu) — meaning excellent peaceful and progressive —Winbridge Education Centre.

GRACE is the dormitory and Nanana is the education centre.

“I will continue doing the work of rescuing the girls because it has become part of me.”

With the award which includes a plaque and a few dollars, Nangurai says she will still support the women and children in her community.

“I have not been able to do much with the women. They need water. I have been encouraging them to build

“I try to reconcile the girls with their parents.

This process involves the Children’s Department as well as the administration which includes the chiefs because they know the families better.”

— Priscilla Naisula Nangurai

Priscilla Naisula Nangurai the founder of Nanana Winbridge Education Centre with some of the children who she has rescued from various forms of abuses. Pictures: Jane Godia better houses from tin instead of the Nangurai says that because of what mud walled manyattas,” she explain, she does, the community takes adadding “with a tin house they will be vantage. “They bring their children to able to harvest rain water”. the centre but do not want to pay. We charge a modest fee of KSh3,000 for day scholars and KSh10,000 for boarders.”

With the little that Nangurai has reHowever, Nangurai notes, parents ceived from the award she plans to do do not want to pay and they know she something for women. will not send the children away. “It’s At Nanana, Nangurai has 42 girls very hard for me to send the children who are boarding, and 30 who operate home for school fees. It’s not the chilas day scholars. Ironically she has girls dren who are paying, it’s the parents.” from as far as Marsabit and Samburu.

From the small earnings she had It is a big challenge hosting such a huge received for her retirement, Nangurai number without a proper and steady managed to put up four classrooms source of income. made from iron sheet. Although the “Only 12 girls have sponsor — six school runs from early childhood to in primary and another six in high Standard Eight, the classes are not school,” explains Nangurai. enough. The younger children have Feeding the children is not easy. their lessons in one of the cubicles in Sometimes when there is government the dormitory. They are also able to relief food being distributed in Kajia- have their afternoon nap here. do County they also benefit from the Nangurai regrets that FGM is not maize and beans but this is not often. going away. “It’s a pity that after all Lift Up Africa has been the centre’s these years, the problem of FGM is biggest supporter. They have been able not coming to an end,” says Nangurai, to fund raise for drilling the borehole noting “because there has been a lot of and building a dormitory. They are sensitisation on the ground, girls are now fund raising for the kitchen. able to say no.”

“We are now looking for sponsors However, because of this parents for the girls which remains our biggest are now circumcising girls at a very challenge,” says Nangurai. early age to avoid authorities. “When The centre has nine teachers and a girl has been circumcised she is then three support staff. There is no proper sent to stay with her mother-in-law. salary for them, According to Nangurai, However, because the man paid dowry, they put what is available on the table he will not allow his wife to sleep in his and the staff share among themselves. mother’s house.

Plans

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

Africa loses many children due to lack of immunization

Poverty drives children out of school, into the streets

By Edward Nyaanga

A

By ROBERT NYAGAH

A

bout three million children under five years of age die each year in Africa, according to the World Health Organisation.

WHO notes that these significant number deaths are preventable by vaccination. Major campaigns have been launched at international, regional and national level to ensure that children access life-saving vaccinations to stem deaths linked to failure to access them.

Kenya like many countries in Africa has had its share of deaths among children directly linked to failure to access vaccination.

This is partly attributed to parents and guardians who fail to send children for immunization due to ignorance or archaic cultural traditions.

A huge number of prospective mothers in Kenya fail to access antenatal services from where knowledge on the importance of vaccination is passed.

This could be due to apathy towards health services or distances to such health facilities.

Interestingly though, the African continent celebrated the 5th African Vaccination Week (AVW) from April 24-30 under the theme “Vaccination, a gift for life”.

As the vaccinations continued, a report by the regional office for Africa Heath Securities and Emergencies’ head Dr Cory Gouillard, WHO revealed the damning statistics that one in five children lack access to life saving vaccines.

Hope

Gouillard notes that lack of service delivery in remote areas as well as lack of information on the effectiveness of vaccines is a major reason why many children have not been vaccinated.

Although measles remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally there are safe and effective vaccines that can help manage preventable diseases like polio, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, meningitis, yellow fever, Hepatitis B, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancers.

“It’s estimated that about three million children under

Kilifi County director of public health and sanitation Dr. Anisa Omar administers anti-measles immunization to Sophia Hassan during the launch of the national program at the Malindi District Hospital. Picture: Robert Nyagah five years of age die each year in the African and a significant number of these deaths could be prevented by vaccines,” says Gouillard.

Barriers

Countries and stakeholders have been asked to raise the visibility of vaccine-preventable diseases, address barriers to vaccination and make substantial and sustained additional investments to strengthen health systems.

Efforts must be made to ensure achievement of equitable access to immunization services across Africa.

“Among the vaccine-preventable “measles remains one of the leading causes of death among children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective

“Among the vaccine-preventable “measles remains one of the leading causes of death among children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.”

vaccine,” says the report.

This particular infection according to the report is estimated to have caused 145,700 deaths globally in 2013, of which it is estimated that 38,000 were in African countries.

The situation is worsened by the fact that the disease is a highly contagious serious ailment caused by a virus.

Vaccine

World Health Origination and UNICEF coverage estimates for 2013 indicate that 74 percent of children in the Africa received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday, up from 53 per cent in 2000.

Since 2001, more than 750 million children have been vaccinated in Africa against measles through supplemental mass vaccination campaigns since 2001, indicates the report.

Measles-related deaths are mainly caused by complications associated with the disease among the severe diarrhoea and related dehydration, severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia, blindness, encephalitis (an infection that causes brain swelling).

s one walks through the parking lot of Uchumi Lang’ata Hyper into the shop, Owayo, an eight year old boy will be found selling groundnuts to Nairobi residents who mill around the shopping mall daily.

Owayo’s job involves moving around the cars in the parking lot to hawk groundnuts.

He carries them in a small, old, basin. He attracts the attention of all shoppers as he tries to entice them to purchase his groundnuts.

The first time I saw him, it was on a week day mid-March when ordinarily school going children sit for their end of term examinations. I decided to ask Owayo why he was not in school and this is what he had to say “My father died two years ago, my five siblings and I live in the slum within the Wilson Airport view. My mother is jobless and many times can’t afford to buy food for all of us,” Owayo explains, adding “I am forced to sell groundnuts to help her.”

Owayo narrates how lack of school fees and food saw him dropout of Lang’ata Road Primary School at class four.

“The headmaster used to turn us back to go home due to either lack of proper school uniform or books. Many times we could not sit for exams because my mother was torn between buying us food and paying our end of term examination fees,” Owayo says.

Looking physically stressed due to the challenges he is going, Owayo says his late dad was the family breadwinner but died after a short illness.

Despite the government’s introduction of free primary education programme, many children miss the direly needed education because poor parents cannot afford food at home and other necessities needed in school.

The government still needs to scrap small charges in schools like examination fees, library fees, so that children from poor backgrounds don’t drop from school or fail to sit for exams.

As the Day of the African child is marked this June 16, children need to be helped to obtain simple but necessary basics such as food.

Owayo says they can even go hungry for two days till neighbours’ offer them some food.

“My mother washes clothes for rich families in Nairobi’s South C Estate but the casual job is hard to get as now many families have hired housemaids,” he says.

Owayo’s future is doomed and he may not make it anywhere without education and skills that one can use to earn a decent living and contribute to society building.

Former and the late South African President, the anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela once remarked: “Education is a powerful virtue that every child should acquire because it’s through it that the son of a peasant farmer may get an opportunity to dine with kings. It is through it that a daughter of a factory worker may rise to a high position of authority in government.”

Today as we celebrate Day of the African Child, let’s digest Owayo’s story. His face represents that of many other children who have been driven out of school into the streets because of poverty.

ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

9

Bowel inconsistence slowing down a girl’s dreams

By Enos Koko

the breaking news that their daughter had developed bowel incontinence and they needed to pay a hefty surgery fee since that was the only sure way of correcting the defect. They were then forced to sell their valuable properties so that they can raise the required amount.

“We sold everything including our inherited land because we needed our daughter to be well just like any other girl,” sobs Mrs. Sarah.

After the surgery, they were assured that their daughter was in good health but her parents couldn’t believe that after 16 years their daughter could still experience the same thing.

She started experiencing it on January this year but after returning back to hospital, they were told that the defect had visited her again.

W

hen you first meet a 16 year old, Christine, you will be cheated by her jovial face. Her forged smile would leave any first time companion with a belief that all is well .These are some of the characteristics she adapted ever since she was born in order to hide her problems. Christine Anyango developed bowel incontinence since she was born. Bowel incontinence is a condition that results due to blocked or missing anus, The rectum may end in a pouch that does not connect with the colon. The rectum may also have openings to other structures like urethra, bladder, base of the penis or scrotum in boys or vagina in girls.

According to her mother, she realized after two days from birth that her daughter was attending long calls using her genital organ.

These sparked tension and unrest in her family as she tried to consult her neighbours on what could have fallen her innocent child.

Poor Performance

Mystery

“I tried to consult my friends but all of them could not unravel the mystery that had befallen my baby, some even said that she had been bewitched,” explains Sarah.

Her husband Mr. Johnston Ojiambo, who was by then a casual labourer at Kenyatta national hospital decided to share his story to one of his friends who was a doctor at Kenyatta hospital and the doctor requested him to bring the baby so that he can conduct medical tests.

“The doctor told me that they needed to cross examine her properly before arising to possible medical conclusion,” recalls Mr. Johnston.

Christine has lived with pain most parts of her life but that will not deter her form achieving her dreams. Picture: Enos Koko Being from a humble background, they were struck by shock after the doctor gave them

With the girl of her age, it is expected that Christine should be in secondary school but this defect has made her to repeat primary classes because of poor performance. Ms Christine, a student at Mbagathi primary school is sometimes forced to miss classes especially when pain emerges in her lower abdomen, at that moment she loses focus “It usually pains here in the lower abdomen and I therefore can’t concentrate in my studies,” says Ms Christine as she points at her lower abdomen, “I therefore stay at home and wait for the time the pain depreciates.”

Since it is difficult to predict when and at what time her situation might arise, she usually feels uncomfortable while in class and also when she is with her friends. This situation has caused her to loose so many friends who usually run away from her.

“Since I am unable to control my bowel movements, the faecal content sometimes flows in unexpected and as a result it produces bad

oduor,” explains Christine as she points at her lower part of the body.

According to her, she experiences more pain at night and this makes her to stay awake as she battles with the pain that mostly attack her lower abdomen. Her mother explains how they are forced to stay awake as they massage her lower abdomen.

“She usually cries at night and these forces us to stay awake and massage her lower abdomen so that she can feel a bit better,” says her mother According to the world statistics done by Right Diagnosis, Ethiopia is the leading country in Africa with the highest number of bowel incontinence followed by South Africa. Bowel incontinence may be accompanied by other bowel problems such as constipation and bloating.

Doctor Malachi Okuom, a basic skills medical trainer at Kibera Amref hospital tells The Reject that such cases are there but most of new mothers and adults are reluctant to tell their doctors about bowel incontinence.

“Most people are shy to tell their doctors and they therefore opt for traditional herbs which are not reliable,” says doctor Okuom.

He therefore advises mothers to always give birth in hospital so that the doctors can cross check the newborns. He also added that treatments are available and the sooner you are evaluated, the sooner you may find some relief from your doctors.

Mrs. Sarah therefore holds on her belief that one day someone will come and help them in settling the bills that would see their daughter return to normalcy.

Her daughter too is full of hope that one day everything will be perfect so that she can pursue her career in medicine

‘A’ student questions why university admission left her out

By ABISAI AMUGUNE

M

illy Nafula is a very frustrated young woman. After spending time in school, both primary and secondary, she never joined any university despite having qualified.

Born 24 years ago on the outskirts of Moi’s Bridge town, Nafula sat for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) at Kitale’s Manor House High School over five years ago and obtained a mean grade of A-.

In a school of five streams with 40 students per class, Nafula beat all the odds to emerge top, shinning on the map of the best performing schools in Trans Nzoia County.

She repeated the feat the school had made the previous year where a fellow female student beat boys to emerge top on the chart. While at school, Nafula’s ambition was to pursue university education and get a degree. She duly filed university application forms and which were submitted

by January 15th, 2008 to the Joint Admission Board (JAB).

“I had dreams to study medicine, tourism or business management but this was not to be,” says Nafula.

With her dreams dashed because no university admitted her, Nafula is now employed as an MPESA teller at Chepchoina Market in Endebess Constituency, Trans Nzoia County earning a monthly salary of KSh2,500.

Though her marks would have enabled her join a public university, what she is earning cannot pay parallel studies or enable her join a private university.

How did Nafula’s woes begin? Has

she given up hope of ever stepping in a university classroom?

A third born in a peasant family of five, the dark- skinned and five-foot tall woman lost her mother in 2012. “Having been brought up by a single mother, I never got to know who her father was,” says Nafula.

At Standard Eight at River Bank Primary School in Moi’s Bridge, Nafula scored A- in her Kenya Certificate of Primary School (KCPE). Despite receiving numerous admission letters in high ranking public secondary schools, she ended up at the private –owned Manor House High School because of the high fees demanded by national public schools.

Inconsistency

“Even at Manor House High School, my studies were not consistent due to constant lack of money to pay school fees,” Nafula explains. “For example, between 2003- 2004, I was in and out of school due to lack of school fees.”

In 2005 she stayed out of school for the entire year only to return in 2006 and prepare for KCSE in 2007 amidst send-offs.

Nafula did not find it easy even after sitting for the exams and having scored high marks. The school’s administration had to detain her certificates because of KSh12,000 fee balance.

“I was forced to casual jobs like farm work and housekeeping to raise the money to secure the documents,” Nafula explains.

Luckily enough, she managed to clear the balance but another headache was ahead of her. Her elder sis-

ter Agneta Naliaka passed on leaving behind three children. Now a total orphan, Nafula staying at their family plot at Mti Moja Village in Moi’s Bridge was at a crossroads. Would she pursue her university education or cater for her deceased sister’s three children?

As fate would be, Nafula’s sister died when she had divorced her husband and so the responsibility was left upon her. She had no otherwise but to continue with the casual jobs to raise money to fend for the family.

In December 2013, a relative visited them at Moi’s Bridge and asked her if she could work as an MPESA teller at a shop in Chepchoina near the Suam boarder-point on the Kenya-Uganda boundary. She readily accepted and moved there with one of late sister’s children Viola Nelima whom she has now adopted.

Nafula acting as the mother, took Nelima to the local Njoro Secondary School where she is in Form.

“From her KSh2,500 salary, she is able to pay Nelima’s fees and care for herself and the other two children under the care of her grandmother at Moi’s bridge.

Things are not any different for Nelima who is facing the same problems as Nafula because she is constantly being sent away from school.

However, all these problems have not deterred Nafula from revisiting her dreams of acquiring the title of a university graduate seven years down the lane.

“Age is not a hindrance to education. I’m ready to join any university if I am called now. The problem is that there is nobody to present my case to

the authorities,” says Nafula, adding “I am praying that one day Lady Luck will smile my side.”

According to Trans Nzoia District Education Officer Simon Matuiy, Nafula’s performance was “natural qualification”, for a regular degree programme.

In a letter to the School’s Principal Samuel Abraham dated June 28th, 2011, Matuiy had asked the school to furnish the Ministry of Education with details of the university application form filled by the student to be forwarded to JAB for expedition.

However, in an earlier letter to JAB by an education official Dunstan Pukah, the institution was being informed of the unfortunate stand of not acting on Nafula’s fate.

The letter dated May 11th, 2011 and addressed to the Registrar of JAB read in part: “It is unfortunate that upto now, your board has not placed her anywhere and yet she meets the minimal requirements for admission. This is a kind appeal for you to consider her as a needy case.”

The school’s principal in a letter of June 5th, 2011, says neither the student nor the school had not received any communication from JAB despite the student having done all that was required for her direct admission.

Stranded

Nafula herself in a letter dated September 14th, 2014 to Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education says she had yet to understand reasons why she was blocked from joining any public university.

The letter reads in part: “I have sought for assistance through the re-

sponsible offices but up to now I have not received any positive response. I was raised by a single parent who was not financially stable and later she passed on leaving me an orphan.”

The letter continues: “I hereby kindly request for late admission to university. I can be assisted financially by the community, Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and County Government among other well-wishers.”

The letter was copied to among others the area Member of County Assembly George Masika and Member of Parliament Dr Robert Pukose.

In her school leaving certificate, Nafula is described as bright, diligent, polite, hardworking and well-behaved.

She was active in debates and collections for exhibitions.

She scored in English B+, Kiswahili B+, Maths A-, Biology A-, Chemistry B+, Geography B+, Business studies A-. Her closest rival scored a mean grade of B-(minus) What is haunting Nafula is why all her efforts of scoring a mean grade of A- should land on hard rocks.

She keeps on asking herself: “Am I being segregated because of my sex?

Or could she be made to suffer because of her financial limitations? Nafula is traumatised because no leader has taken up her case? She further says she is ready to face the consequences if at all she had committed a professional misconduct in obtaining the KCSE results.

Nafula is demanding to be told from JAB what selection criteria was used to deny her university admission.

“I will always live to know the truth,” she says in an interview in Kitale town as tears formed in her eyes.

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

The African child art gallery

By Wahinya Henry

F

ourteen- year- old Kelvin Osoro attends school in Kibera, Nairobi County one of Africa’s largest slum.

It is while at Olympic High School where he learned his artistic skills.

He has wide dreams of up scaling the skills in future. He wants to be a renowned global artist.

Many are the times Osoro would find himself idle after classes in the crime-infested slum where many young people have resorted to because of desperation.

Then one day he walked into Uweza Art Gallary founded by Steve Kyenze.

Kyenze founded the gallery to help poor children from the slum raise school fees and at the same time earn a living from art pieces.

The youth remembers the many days he and family members slept hungry before he sold his first artistic work.

“I earned my first income in 2010 of Sh.6, 000 after I drew a piece depicting the world of wildlife, recalls Osoro.

Adding: “I was in primary school. Since then, I’ve earned much more from the sales of my work. At home a meal is no longer a headache.”

Osoro further says that : “I have my eyes set to become an accomplished artist. It’s my desire that I become a role model to colleagues in the slums. I encourage young people to make use of the facility like I did.”

Purpose

Uweza art classes are aimed at encouraging Kibera children and youth to explore their creative capabilities.

Very few schools in Kibera encourage art or include it in the curriculum and children face

pressure from parents, teachers and society to put all their efforts into academics.

Persistent poverty in Kibera and lack of resources greatly limit extracurricular activities, such as art, that are made available to children.

Those who may have artistic calling lack opportunities to develop and nurture their talent, which may go undiscovered for their entire lives.

About 30 Kibera youth ages 5 to 22 attend art classes twice a week at the Uweza Community Center.

Participating youth learn basic drawing skills and color mixing before moving on to creating their own pieces.

The art program also takes trips outside of Kibera to museums, galleries, and art exhibits.

“Children in the slums are vulnerable to many vices if left to fend for themselves. After school they are left on their own. Petty crimes become their pastime,” says Uweza Foundation director, William Moi.

Income

Moi explains that the art works drawn by the children makes them earn an income that is used to pay their school fees and the rest goes to meet family needs in the slums where jobs are scarce.

“We look for market for the art pieces. Expatriates offer instant market. Exhibitions are an

Steve Kyenze with some of the arts students at Uweza Art Gallary in Kibra slum.

Picture: Henry Wahinya important market outlet,” says Moi of the pieces that can fetch between Ksh.5,000 -Ksh.85,000.

“It is a double score for the children because the cost of school is high for parents. Artists are able to raise cash for leaning as well as earn an income. The deaf are especially disadvantaged yet they have hidden talent that can be harnessed.”

He pays tribute to Kyenze, saying he has devised an innovative way of raising school fees for disadvantaged children living in Kibera slums.

He uses Google Search to find inspiring images which he teaches the children to develop their own paintings.

Nurturing

“We nurture the children’s talents and at the same time ensure they are getting education for free. Most of them cannot afford to go to school because their parents are poor. We sell their paintings so that we can pay their school fees,” he says.

The gallery falls under the Education/Art/ Sports category in the Africa Connected Competition.

Talented children in Kibera can now raise up to Sh10, 000 a month for school fees, during

“It is a double score for the children because the cost of school is high for parents. Artists are able to raise cash for leaning as well as earn an income. The deaf are especially disadvantaged yet they have hidden talent that can be harnessed.”

— William Moi

their holidays.

With the free time they have during the school breaks, children from poor families are painting and drawing to earn some money.

Kyenze who is a self taught artist says he helps willing children to polish up their skills and save the money for school fees.

Benefits

“I sell the artifacts each child has done and instead of giving the money to their parents, I save it to pay their school fees,” says Kyenze.

Each of the children who do the art has an account where their money is saved.

As an artist, Kyenze, who runs the centre at Kibera’s Kamukunji area, did not have the children in mind as he set up the gallery.

As his business grew, he says, small boys showed interest in what he was doing and he allowed them to be part of it.

“They would visit my shop and watch what I was doing and I soon realised that some had talent in art, so I decided to help them nurture their talents,” he said.

Children aged between six and 18 spend most of their free time painting and drawing at the shop.

“Once they are through with primary school education, they want to join secondary school, but most would lack fees. The money I save for them takes care of this,” he said.

The skill has helped many children, whose parents could not afford school fees, to join secondary school, Kyenze explains as he paces the crammed room measuring 12’x10’ whose every available space hangs different pieces of art he fondly refers to as an art gallery.

ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

11

Growing concern over hypertension among children

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By Robert Nyagah

he World Health Organization (WHO) research indicates damning statistics that by the year 2000 hypertension was affecting approximately 80 million adults in African and warned that numbers will grow to reach 150 million by 2025.

Locally experts indicate that despite being a developing concern among children in Kenya, the ailment has been on increase against a background where there is no clear local national program on how to manage the condition among children.

The month of May however is important because the World High Blood Pressure Day is marked every May 17 and in Kenya, events are marked against last year’s decision by the Ministry of Health and partners to launch the national initiative taunted as the “Healthy Heart Africa” to support the country’s health systems by increasing awareness and availing hypertension screening services.

A major program on the ailment was launched last year targeting 20 out of the 47 counties where screening has been made mandatory among all patients visiting health facilities including children.

Control

Some normal entertainment and social functions across Kenya indicate just how carefree Kenyans are when it comes to controlling hypertension. It is early evening during one of the now popular community nights in a popular entertainment and eating resorts in the outskirts of the Nairobi City presided over by a buffet dinner.

The chefs are encouraging revelers drawn the third largest tribe in Kenya to sample their traditional foods set in small steaming pots but among other modern meals which include deep fried potatoes, roast and fried meat .

While smartly dressed adults curiously sample the traditional meals keenly listening to an enthusiastic chef explaining what is available while they fill their plates, a group of under 18 year old boys and girls looking well nourished pass through the traditional foods with no interest to fill their plates with oily chips and pieces of deep fried chicken and beef.

Spirited efforts by one of the parents to convince her big bodied son to try some of the boiled traditional green vegetables, English potatoes and various roots are met with outright rejection and a show of disgust in the faces.

When the slow music which a warm up for the night of music and dance dies out, the expectant women shout with joy and abandon before returning to seep huge gulps of their respective drinks, a clear indication that they are already

Dr. Fred Bukachi a cardiologist and lecturer at the University of Nairobi.

Picture: David Mbewa tipsy just like their male colleagues.

Such scenes of fast food eating and consumption are becoming more of a norm and despite counsel from nutritionists who have already been joined by chefs keen to try and promote healthy eating through adoption of traditional foods known to be nutritionally more beneficial to Kenyans; little success has been achieved especially among the supposed refined families in urban settings.

But as opportunities to create awareness on how eating of the traditional foods could benefit Kenyans, children continue to devour oily and deep fried fast foods at home and in commercial eating places just as their parents also engage excessive consumption of alcohol, a hitherto unknown malady among the children- that is hypertension or high blood pressure is now stalking children.

Recent report by medical experts indicate that “high blood pressure, commonly associated with adults, is slowly creeping up on children” Culprits have been mentioned as inactive ways of life and fatty diets including exposure to alcohol and tobacco at home and outside.

High blood pressure has been described as a silent killer especially when it affects children whose parents or guardians have no idea what ailments could be afflicting their children.

The experts blame worrying incidents of high blood pressure among children to rise in obesity and other risk factors including exposure to pollutants linked to tobacco smoking.

A leading cardiologist and lecturer at the University of Nairobi Dr. Fred Bukachi sadly indicates that disease may manifest itself to children without symptoms and hence terms it as “a silent killer”.

“High blood pressure in children doesn’t usually have symptoms. However, when they are diagnosed with it, they are immediately referred to a specialist who puts them on treatment,” says Dr. Bukachi.

Experts in Kenya normally do what they refer to as “primordial prevention” normally involving the, teaching of pregnant women skills on the importance of avoiding alcohol and smoking.

This is because it has emerged medically that children who are born prematurely, with low birth weight, inherited heart diseases and has certain kidney problems was at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure.

Dr. Bukachi notes that family history of high blood pressure raised the risk of this disease although lifestyle can influence emergence.

When the heart pumps blood through the vessels normally, during which the vessels widen and contract, people are said to be normal but, in a person with hypertension the blood pushes too hard against the blood vessels, which can cause damage to vessels, the heart, and other organs.

Launch

Experts in the private and public sector according to Dr Bukachi says were working closely to launch health messages that create awareness on the issue, as well as promoting physical activities and stress reduction in the children.

Studies to ascertain the number of children afflicted by the hypertension are ongoing and will shape private and public future campaigns strategies of handling the malady known to kill huge number of people.

Dr Bukachi says: “Although hypertension remains such as growing concern high among children, there hasn’t been any clear national program

on how to manage the disease in children.”

That the diseases affect at least at least four in ten people and causes cardiovascular disease, stroke and organ failure, Dr. Bukachi says raises concern when the number of children culprits indicates worsening increase.

Researchers at the African Population and Health Research Centre indicated that in two years ago one in eight adults living in Nairobi’s slums were found to have suffered high blood pressure yet only half of them had been tested or received treatment in the past one year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) research indicates damning statistics that by 2000 hypertension in was affecting approximately 80 million adults in African and warned that numbers will grow to reach 150 million by 2025.

Across some counties in Kenya where studies have been carried out medics are alarmed by statistics.

A study in Kiambu County revealed that the number fifth cause of adult admissions in county hospitals was high blood pressure, while the disease ranks seven causes of deaths.

The disease burden experts however insist that be tackled and that is through persistent advice and counseling of victims and pre exposed Kenyans.

The patients and the community are normally advised to reduce daily sugar and salt intakes, to pick an active lifestyle and reduce tobacco and alcohol consumption as well given that those were key risk factors.

According to the Vice President of the Kenya’s awareness on high blood pressure, Samer Al Hallaq, the government of Kenya acknowledges that high blood pressure remained a concern in the country and very few are aware of available treatment and how to manage it and for that reason awareness has been intensified.

20 counties are already under the awareness projects with a pilot project at Kiambu having achieved quite some success with statistics drawn from the county revealing a worsening situation.

Dr. Elijah Ogola, technical adviser to the Healthy Heart Africa initiative, speaking says that Kenyans and experts through the initiative had the opportunity to confront a silent killer that was gaining momentum across Africa.

He said “Hypertension, or raised blood pressure, has grown quietly but dangerously across the continent and now affects a greater proportion of adults in Africa than in any other region”.

Dr Ogola says that hypertension was a major risk factor for stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney disease – all components of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), today the second leading overall cause of death in Africa after infectious diseases.

Children affected by jiggers in Busia and Siaya counties now in the spotlight

J

By Gilbert Ochieng igger infestation has been a major problem to majority of children especially the orphaned vulnerable children in both Busia and Siaya counties as scores of them have ended up dropping out of school.

However, a good number of them now have every reason to wear a smile on their faces as a non-governmental organization known as Heart-for- Kenya has come to their rescue through its ambitious jigger eradication program that has won not only the heart of the beneficiaries but also local leaders, the local community and civil society organizations in the two counties.

Since its establishment in Kenya fourteen years down the line, Heart For- Kenya, which is the brain-child of a volunteer Christian from Norway who has been working in collaboration with the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya[FPFK] has so far

handled a total of 1500 orphaned vulnerable children out of which 509 have been affected by jiggers and could not manage to trek to school due to jigger infestation.

In a recent interview with the Reject Online, Bishop Gabriel Ouma, 62, of the Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya [{FPFK} Nyambare mission, said the mission had been touched by the high number of children who had been forced to drop from school due to jigger infestation hence forcing the mission to earmark a portion of its budget to launch a jigger eradication programme infection.

“The Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya in collaboration with HeartFor- Kenya have so far handled a total of 509 children from Busia and Siaya who had been affected by jiggers,” said Bishop Ouma.

Bishop Ouma said majority of the jigger victims who are HIV and Aid orphaned vulnerable children had

been left under the custody of their ageing grandparents following the demise of their parents.

The bishop added that the children always slept in filthy environment which is the breeding ground for jiggers.

“The increase in the number of HIV and Aids prevalence rate has seen a rise in child-headed households, a situation that has forced them to desert school in search of cheap labour at the beaches so as to earn their daily bread.

However, despite the meager resources, the mission with the help of foreign sponsors has taken the initiative to withdraw the destitute children from rampant child labour and returned them to school.

We have managed to educate some of the children up to the university with scores of them joining technical training colleges to pursue the courses of their choice as well as teacher training colleges,” he says.

Apart from catering for their basic health, food and education needs, we also build houses for orphaned vulnerable children especially their grand-parents majority of who had been staying in old houses with leaking roofs. We also provide them with blankets and mosquito nets to protect them against malaria.

It is our prayer that the Lord will continue to open a way for us financially as a church so that we can be able to identify and continue providing for more needy children since I believe majority of them out there are still undergoing a lot of hardships in silence,” concludes Bishop Ouma.

One of the grand-parents, Lewnida Atieno, 70, a widow who hails from a village known as Kamalunga village in Siaya County has thanked the FPFK and Heart-For- Kenya for the assistance they have given her grand-child who had been affected by jiggers.

“My son and daughter in -law

died a decade ago leaving behind five children aged between three and ten.

Though sickly with nobody to provide for me, I had to defy all odds and go out to look for casual work in other peoples’ farms in order to earn money to enable me feed my grandchildren,” says the widow, adding that the mission has helped her a great deal since the orphans were identified and picked to benefit from the feeding programme..

Heart-For-Kenya has engaged two committed persons Dick Mwoya and Pastor Samuel Karanja as Jigger Eradication Programme coordinators in the two counties.

“Diagnosing and treating the jigger victims require total courage and commitment considering that most of the affected body parts are rotten and stinking badly, but we have no alternative as we are committed to ensuring the children are free from jiggers,” says Mwoya.

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

No safe place for Kenyan child

By Carolyne Oyugi

I

f what we hear from the media is anything to go by then the Kenyan children are living in a harsh environment where their human rights are not protected.

Many children are no longer safe at school with their teachers who have been given the responsibility to teach and instill discipline.

Some teachers have turned pedophiles with cases of repeated defilement and sodomy have become the norm.

The saddest part is that very few cases have gone through court to successful completion. Many of them end with transfer of the teachers to a different school where they continue with their perverted acts.

In what seems to be a sign of justice, Justice Mumbi Ngugi awarded two pupils who had been defiled by their teacher Sh5 million and reproached TSC for fail- A child waits to use one of the public toilets ing to curb rising numbers in Kibra. Lack of such basic structures puts children at risk of being abused. Inset: of rogue teachers.

Dawood Farrah, a human rights advocate.

This is a landmark rulPictures: David Mbewa and Courtesy ing that is expected to open a floodgate of suits and also make teachers do what they Unfortunately the walls of the are mandated to do, which is teaching tank fell on the children injuring and disciplining pupils without hav- most of them and killing one. ing sexual advances.

The boy was pronounced dead at Corporal punishment was abol- Kwanza Heath Center where he had ished in the Kenyan schools in 2001 been rushed after the incident. and the Children’s Act (Government Sadly this unfortunate trend does of Kenya, 2001) which entitles chil- not end at school. They follow the dren to protection from all forms of children back at home where they abuse and violence enacted. are supposed to be loved and taken Kenya is also a signatory to the care of.

Convention on the Rights of the The same people who they (chilChild (United Nations, 1990) which dren) trust and love have turned states that discipline involving vio- against them and turned them to a lence is unacceptable. battlefield.

Punishment

In spite of this, the use of corporal punishment continues in Kenyan schools there are still cases of teacher using excessive force when punishing students.

Last month (May), a form one girl in Murang’a county was beaten by a teacher who went as far as strangling her for not finishing assignment.

Luckily she did not die but was left with bruises on her face, neck and a sad memory.

Some children are however not as lucky as the Murang’a girl. It is in record that some pupils have died in the hands of their teachers in the name of discipline.

In July 2014, still in the same county, a pupil died from injuries sustained following teacher’s punishment for failing Kiswahili exam. The standard five pupil at Kiuu primary school succumbed to his injuries after being hit on the head and pushed to the desk injuring his back.

In July 2013 a standard six pupil also died in Meteitei Primary School in Trans Nzoia County.

The pupil was amongst a group of pupils who where ordered by the school’s head teacher to demolish a water tank as a punishment.

Defilement

There is a growing trend of children bearing the burden of broken families. Times and again there are reports of children being physically and sexually abused by one of the parents once they are in disagreement.

Issues of repeated defilement by both step and biological fathers and sodomy has become the order of the day.

Some parents have gone as far as poisoning themselves together with their children to death, slaughtering them and at times setting their houses on fire to express their frustration.

Since time immemorial killing of women and children was unheard of.

Things have however changed, pregnant women and very young children are being killed whenever there is conflict.

Kennedy Otina of FEMNET while addressing a Gender Forum in Nairobi explained that the evil acts are currently used by men to show power and completeness to humiliate other men.

“Unfortunately some men are using sexual violence as a weapon of war,” said Otina.

According to Dawood Farrah,

Learning disrupted by terror threats in Kitui County

By Boniface Mulu

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an advocate in Nairobi ,the Laws are there, its just that persons concerned do not want to hold up to the letter.

“Looking at the Penal Code & the Sexual Offences Act and also the Children’s Act, all aspects of GBV are fully covered. As you may be aware, GBV itself is evolving and there is now economic and psychological GBV which the laws do not cater for expressly. However, generally the Laws are there, very clear on this regard,” said Farrah during an interview with The Reject. ​According to the advocate, Gender Based Violence (GBV) encompasses criminal ingredients like assault, rape, defilement and sodomy for which the law presumes one as innocent until the contrary is proven.

It is therefore the mandate of the Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to conduct the investigations and prosecutions respectively and effectively in order to achieve the intention of the laws.

“This has however not been the case, many a times, the authorities (police) look at such GBV related cases as “internal matters” which should be resolved in the home oblivious to the fact that somebody’s rights have been violated and which attract a penalty against the accused if found guilty,” said Farrah.

The advocate further explains that the laws have also been rendered ineffective due to the tendency of complainants to resolve these matters outside the ambit of the law. ​Farrah who specializes in Human Rights especially regarding children​ also shares that cases that touch on children are sometimes very compli-

cated.

“The shoddy work done by the police especially the so-called investigation officers, the parents of the minors who at times opt to keep silent on such violations and also the laxity within our Court systems makes justice very elusive.

From his experience, family ​ members also contribute to the failure of the cases.

“I once did a defilement matter​ and just towards it’s conclusion, the mother to the minor alleged that she had been spoken to by the ancestors (whatever that means) and opted out of the entire proceedings. Several warrants of arrest and summons were issued against the suspect but to no avail, so the accused currently walks free,” said Farrah.

Contradiction

S​ ome cases are also not successful because of the fact that the complainant chose to give contradictory evidence as at the time of writing the statement and testimony in Court.

GBV cases especially among children are extremely sensitive and involving.

The Children’s Act is expressly clear on the tenets to be followed whilst dealing with a case involving a minor​.

Farrah therefore advises that these procedures have to be followed strictly to achieve the intended results.

“This for example involves the minor’s wishes, not subjecting the minor to forced and or coerced testimonies and also ensuring that they are willing to give the said testimony,” he said.

Stake-holders also need to conduct more advanced awareness programmes especially to the persons living in low income settlements as that is the main source of GBV related cases.

Also the Courts need to up their game when dealing with GBV related cases against minors to avert unnecessary delays.

Economic-Social welfare of families also be checked.

chool children and teachers in Kitui County are now under great fear due to the terrorism scare in the region.

Making the remarks, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Kitui Branch Executive Secretary, Joseph M.Makuthu also announced that a total of five schools in the county had already been closed because of the fear.

“Sombe Girls Secondary School in Mutitu District was closed about two weeks ago (14th May 2015) and four other schools were closed today 28th May 2015) in Ikutha District after some alleged Al Shabaab terrorists were seen in the area,” the KNUT official said.

Makuthu further said that some of the Kitui Teachers Training College students had been injured in a stampede while fleeing for their safety after they heard dogs barking within the learning institution’s compound at dawn.

“One of them threw himself from the third floor for fear,” the unionist added.

Makuthu called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to provide all the boarding schools in Kitui County with security officers for the good of education.

“We have enough police officers in the country but they are poorly distributed,” the unionist said. He was speaking to teachers from Kitui Central Division in Kitui District of Kitui County during a party hosted for them by their colleague, H. Kyondo Mwongela at his Kitithini Village home in Kitui Central Division, to celebrate his retirement from Kenya’s civil service after having taught for 40 years.

Mwongela has retired from teaching after attaining the age of 60 years and he has during his 40 years teaching career taught at the Katyethoka Primary School (1974-78) and Mulundi Primary School (1978-2015). The two learning institutions are in Kyanwithya East Location.

Makuthu said that the school children and teachers can not stay in schools where their lives are in danger. “Are we going to stop education in the country due to insecurity?” Makuthu questioned. “There is no any country in the world that can develop without educated citizens,” he added. Makuthu at the same time told the Kenya’s Education Cabinet Secretary, Professor Jacob T. Kaimenyi, to keep off from the Kenya’s teachers affairs.

“We want the promotions of teachers in the country to be done by the Kenya’s Teachers Service Commission Secretary and not by Kaimenyi,” he said.

The KNUT official complained that the government has employed a total of 22 new teachers in Kitui County while their deficit is 1,000.

He was accompanied by the KNUT Kitui Branch’s Burial Benevolent Scheme Chairman for Kitui Central Division, John Malusi.

ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

13

A girl-child who is also a mother

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By Odhiambo Orlale

chool girls in Nandi County like Ann Cheptoo (not her real names) are a worried lot.

They don’t feel safe during the day in their villages nor during the night in their parents’ homes and/or in their schools because of pedophiles who are on the prowl in their midst.

But they have hope, like Cheptoo who has literally gone to hell and back and has a story to tell as a student at Got Ne Lel Girls in Tinderet constituency, a model school in the middle of the hills of Nandi County in North Rift region.

She is one of the nine girls aged between eight and 14 years who were recently rescued by a local NGO there from facing the circumcisers’ knife, being forced into marriage, starting a family and/or dropping out of school.

Cheptoo was 14 years when a man walked into her innocent life and forced her to abandon her education at a critical stage on the eve of sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). Looking back, the soft spoken schoolgirl, blames it all on her ignorance, poverty in her family and desperation which made her accept the forced early marriage.

Research

Indeed, according to a recent research done by the Kapsabet Court users committee, chaired by the Senior Principal Magistrate, Gladys Adhiambo, cases of incest, rape, teenage pregnancy and early marriages (linked to Female Genital Mutilation, also known as FGM) were on the rise in the area.

This confirmed an earlier study by a Nairobi-based NGO, Peace Initiative Kenya (PIK), showing that Gender Based Violence, which includes FGM, was on the rise in that County, and the girl child was not spared.

In the first quarter of this year, 29 cases of defilement were reported to CUC, seven of at-

Some of the students at Got Ne Lel Girls School in Songhor division, Nandi County, during break time. It is a model school in the County where Gender Based Violence and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are on the rise forcing many girls to drop out of school due to early pregnancy and marriage. Picture: Odhiambo Orlale tempted defilement; five of incest; four of rape; and three of attempted rape But despite those challenges, some schoolgirls, like Cheptoo have decided to go against the culture and soldier on in pursuit of their education and a bright future.

Cheptoo who is 18-years is one of the nine girls who were rescued in Nandi County and helped to return to the classroom by Rural Women Peace Link, an Eldoret-based local Non Governmental Organisation, which is a leading anti GBV campaigner in the region. She is preparing to sit for KCPE this year.

In a rare interview at her new school, she reveals that she was 14 years when she got pregnant as she was preparing to sit for KCPE in Standard Eight in order to join secondary school. But that was not to be. Her dreams were dashed when she found herself involved in an affair with an older man who impregnated her.

Poverty

Because of the poverty in her family, her parents quickly accepted local arrangements, kipgaa (compensation in an out of court settlement) and payment of bride price in form of cattle from the perpetrator, who paid up to avoid the matter being taken up by the local chief and the police as an offence under the Sexual Offences Act and the Children’s Act, which state that no one is allowed to marry a minor, which is defined as anyone below 18 years of age.

But looking back four years later, Cheptoo says she has no regrets as her four-year-old daughter is being taken care of by her mother and her husband has allowed her to resume her studies at Got Ne Lel Girls in Songhor division, which is a boarding school.

During the interview, she was dressed in her new uniform as she fielded questions from the 20 journalists about her experience, triple role as a student, mother and as a wife. Her baby, her parents, and her husband were all at the venue of the interview to give her moral support.

Her daughter stays with her parents and goes to a local nursery school near their home.

Cheptoo revealed that her husband had accepted the new arrangements and meets her during midterm and school holidays.

Said the student: “It was initially very challenging for me to balance my three roles, but I thank God and the Rural Women Peace Link for giving me the financial and moral support to continue with my studies.”

Some of the rescued girls, most in puberty and in primary school, had been married off, had given birth and then later sat down with their parents and husband separately to appeal to them to allow them to return to school to complete their studies.

According to Cheptoo, she was not keen having a long term relationship with the man, but says she was forced to accept him by her parents because of the high poverty level in the family, fear of embarrassment; and the strong Nandi culture which says that a girl must be married after she gets pregnant.

Tour

Addressing journalists at her school, Got Ne Lel Girls in Tinderet constituency recently during a media tour of the vast County, the schoolgirl said: “I was in Standard Eight when I got pregnant and was forced to abandon my education and marry an older man. But after I delivered and attended a sensitisation forum organised by Rural Women Peace Link with the

support of PIK, I decided to ask them to support me to return to school, which they did.”

In a separate interview at the school, the Principal, Dina Keter, confirmed her student’s concerns about the challenges girls are facing in the area singling out the high drop out rate because of early pregnancies.

The Principal’s efforts have borne fruit thanks to the concerted joint effort working closely with Rural Women Peace Link and the local officials of the Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organisation, in promoting the girl-child education in the County.

Says Keter: “Teenage pregnancy is a big problem here and has led to the high dropout by girls. In my school, I have two students who have two children each, while others have husbands and others have boyfriends who interfere with their concentration in class and in their studies.”

Last year, the Principal rescued two schoolgirls who had dropped out after they were forcefully married off. They were between Standard Four and Standard Seven, it was pathetic!”

She raised an alarm and the chief and the police swung into action and arrested the so-called husband and the girl’s parents and charged in court while the girls resumed their studies.

The principal was with an Eldoret-based lawyer, Elizabeth Rotich, who is her former student and offers pro bono legal services to GBV survivors.

For the sake of the schoolgirls, the Principal is appealing to the Ministry of Education to intervene and protect them from early pregnancies and marriages and undergoing the harmful and outlawed FGM practice which is done in some parts of the vast County.

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ISSUE 109, June 1-30, 2015

Unfiltered, uninhibited…just the gruesome truth

Celebrating the Day of the African child

7 year old school girl finds uncle in Deputy President

By Titus Murithi

C

hildren are said to be angels and for sure that was recently manifested clearly in front of thousands of Christians and other people who had attended a church fund raising function, which was presided over by Deputy President William Ruto at Kinoru Methodist church in Meru town.

Through her poem titled: AM I NOT LUCKY, little Nina Kanana Muema recited the poem articulately and with a lot confidence and very high morale which captivated the Deputy President (DP) who later rose to welcome her to sit with him after the poem.

In the poem, the brave girl also “baptized” the deputy president to a new name when she referred to him as “Uncle Willie” in the sixth verse of the poem which reads as follows: “Everyone calls you, Your Exellency William Samoei Ruto, but I am the only one who can call you Uncle Willie. Am I not lucky?”

After the poem the little girl walked confidently to the open hands of the DP who had already stood up and opened his hands to receive the brave girl and lifted her up and proceeded with her to where he was seated.

A seat was hurriedly brought forward for Nina and placed next to that of the DP and she comfortably occupied the seat till the function was over.

Joy

After settling in the seat, Nina and the DP began chatting and it was during that conversation that it could be noted the DP could laugh widely and then got out his handkerchief and started wiping tears of joy from his eyes.

The other notable high profile figure who also wiped out tears of joy from his face was Meru senator Kiraitu Murungi who was seated next on the right side of the DP. By all this time, Nina was seated at the left side of the DP, sandwiched between the DP and the cabinet secretary for education Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi.

Nina later confided to our reporter that her chat with the DP largely touched on her family, school and the class she was in.

“The Deputy President asked me my names, that of my mum, dad and sister. He also asked where my mum and dad works.

I told him my names, that of my sister and that of my parents. I then told him my mother is a secondary school teachers and my dad repairs phones. I also told him my school is called Consolata primary school and I am in class three and I am 7 years old,” said little Nina.

Talent

Nina’s parents Arthur and Jane Muema said they didn’t expect their little daughter to sit next to the DP despite reciting a good poem. They described their daughter as a multitalented child who they take care of

very well while at home and other places.

“Nina is very bright and multitalented and as caring parents we really take great care of our child and always encourage her in whatever she tries. She’s good in her class work and she makes sure before going to play she’s done with her home work.

She’s very good at skating and interestingly we didn’t teach her to do it but she told us to buy for her skating shoes as she can do it and we went ahead to do it and we were surprised by her high skill of skating in the house and around the verandas,” said

“We call to our fellow parents out there to have good time with their children and try to look at talents their children might have and help them to nurture those talents at early stages.”

— Jane & Arthur Muema

DP William Ruto chats with little Nina Kanana.

Picture: Larry Kimori Nina’s Mother, Jane Muema. in children need to be nurtured from Nina’s parents advised other par- early stages so that later children will ents to be on a serious lookout for use those talents in positive and contalents which their children might be structive ways for the benefit of their having and try to help them nurture lives and the community at large,” those talents as talents which are well said Nina’s father, Arthur Muema. nurtured and well utilized can take During the church event, the deppeople far. uty president wrote a cheque worth They said some parents have no Sh300, 000 to pay Nina’s school fee time for their children and they will and her parents thanked the DP for even never realize that their children his good generosity. are talented. They observed children “The deputy president His Excelare talented in different was and it lency William Ruto wrote a cheque takes the intervention of parents to worth Sh300, 000 to pay our daughhelp them nurture those talents from ter’s school fee and it’s enough to pay early stages. her fees up to class eight. We sin“We call to our fellow parents out cerely thank the DP for his kindness there to have good time with their and we pray that he can do the same children and try to look at talents to other children who are needy their children might have and help within our communities,” said Nina’s them to nurture those talents at early mother. stages.

Nina says she would like to be Children are talented in vari- a scientist or a renowned musician ous ways but at times some parents when she grows up. Already she sings have no time for their children even rhythm and blues very well from to note the talents they have. Talents known artists.

Executive Director: Arthur Okwemba Editor: Jane Godia

Write to: info@mdcafrica.org

Sub-Editors: Carolyne Oyugi, Joyce Chimbi and Odhiambo Orlale Designer: Noel Lumbama

Contributors: Henry Owino, Parsai Ole Joto, Larry Kimori, Omar Mwalagho, Robert Nyagah, Edward Nyaanga, Enos Koko, Abisai Amugune, Gilbertt Ochieng, Titus Murithi

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