(HOPE YOU READ TO THE END)
We really feel bad when we see them going through dumps looking for food, sleeping in the cold… You’ll be suprised that these kids have homes. This is what my pal who works with social services tells me…
These kids are from areas around major towns. They’re from the villages and are told of fantasy stories from the city. An example is around Mwea, where my friend is stationed, they catch kids on transit to the city (by foot). Once caught the kids tell them about what they’ve heard. How you can get 100 bob a day from people, food is all over, you get to play the whole day, they even tell them of sexual escapades with female chokoras, most of all NO SCHOOL or being followed around.
These are things watoi wa ushago wakiskia it’s music to their ears.
After this info is collected the rescued kids are counselled and given the harsh reality of what happens in the city to Chokoras. Upon being taken back for the final phase where the social worker needs to find out the background of these kids, (some claim to be orphans) out of 10 cases, only one is found to be truly homeless. A case of a chokora in a small town like Karatina who wants a better life of a chokora in the city where a stranger can give you 10 bob compared to getting one bob in Karatina.
The other 9, have homes and shockingly according to the statistics 5 out of 10 come from very stable homes. A case where upon the return of the child the mother comes running and crying to see her child.
Well this is something of concern. If you’ve read to this part you should be asking yourself what the solution is…
MY THOUGHTS…
Let us stop giving beggars money in the streets. According to statistics… beggars in Nairobi make a minimum of 500 bob a day downtown Nairobi. In the CBD around 1k. (They have zones) so a beggar can make as much as 30 to 40k a month. This person will never leave the streets and it will be a trend to those coming after them. If you feel like giving back to society we have homes for the old, homeless, drug rehabilitation centers, children’s homes… If you advice the homeless to go to these centers they will refuse because they are made to work for food. Why work for food when there’s a gold mine in the streets?
It may sound cruel but it will reach a time begging will be an in thing and our country will be flooded with them. As we speak it is escalating to very high levels at some point it will be uncontrollable.
Because street families are now at a level they have chamas. Did you know there’s a bank in Kenya owned by a group of former street family??? It’s a success story and even you life iki kulemea you will start begging or like some people are doing, they buy cripples from Tanzania house them and every morning drop them in town to beg. In the evening they are picked and the “owner” takes stock.
We had andre group and we bought a beggar a wheel chair. A guy called Collo who used to hang around Alliance Française. The boy used to crawl literally. One day I gave him my sweat shirt after he was rained on vibaya. After 2 days he didn’t have the wheel chair. It had been taken away by the “owner”. We wanted to report this to the police but Collo told us if we do he won’t have a home.