Sexual exploitation of girls, including street girls, in Mombasa is on the rise and perpetrators range from street boys to wealthy men, a government officer has said.
County children's coordinator Philip Nzenge on Friday said some of the girls are taken from their families or the streets by sex pests, who then live with them as their wives.
Poverty-stricken parents allow their girls to be married by ‘wealthy’ adults in exchange for ‘dowry’.
Some of the sex pests do not even pay the ‘dowry’, according to Muslims for Human Rights.
Once the girls hit 18 years, they are thrown out, to the streets, but this time either pregnant or already with children, increasing the number of street families.
“These are the majority who come to our offices wanting to be helped,” Nzenge said.
Muhuri gender officer Topister Juma said a combination of factors has pushed underage boys and girls to ‘marry’ each other.
Juma said the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation.
“The long period that schoolchildren were at home saw them start misbehaving. They engaged in irresponsible behaviour, ending on unwanted pregnancies.
“Some parents forced these teens to ‘marry’ each other,” said Juma, accusing parents of irresponsibility.
She said it is such ‘marriages’ that end up increasing the number of street children after the underage parents fail to take care of their children.
“Right now there are cases of underage boys and girls marrying each other in so many areas in Mombasa,” Juma said on the phone.
She called for the arrest of parents who marry off their underage children.
In some cases, she said, girls run away from home to get married to someone who can provide for them and possibly their families.
“The pandemic made parents lose jobs. Due to frustrations, there has been domestic violence between the parents. The girls see this and feel bad.
“They run off to with boda boda guy or that shopkeeper who used to give them money and free stuff. They stay with them to try and take the burden of feeding them off their parents,” said Juma, who has received such cases during the pandemic.
In a stakeholders' meeting on Thursday, Nzenge said most street children in Mombasa would like to get help but there are few or no helping hands.
The children's coordinator said they, together with other stakeholders, must come up with more elaborate ways of protecting street girls.
They are a priority because they have become an endangered species, he said.
Nzenge called for a rescue centre for victims of sexual exploitation.
“Right now we don’t have any such facility. Even if we rescue one, there is nowhere we can take her,” he said.
Mombasa county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo has formed a four-member team to establish the number of schoolgirls who got pregnant during the 10-month school closure caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The committee has a representative from the health department, children’s department, education department and civil society.
“In two weeks, we will have statistics about this and what action has been taken on each case,” Nzenge said.
He said street children were increasing in number in Mombasa even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are plans to push the county assemblies to come up with laws that will guide the adoption of children.
Nzenge said some people take children from the streets in the guise of helping them but end up abusing them.
“There are [people] who use street children as business ventures. They bring children to the streets to go around begging and in the evening take the money collected to them,” he said.
Nzenge said a law should be introduced to guide how one can help a street child.
In 2020, 52 children were taken off the streets of Mombasa. Out of these, 46 are still being helped by various organisations.
The six escaped from the facility they were taken to and are yet to be traced.
Nzenge said parents and guardians no longer show love to children under their care and this pushes them out of their homes and into the streets.
Mombasa County Child Rights Network chairperson Nolly Rae said the devolved unit has neglected some aspects of child rights protection.
He said most street urchins are adults, who copulate and give birth to children who end up remaining on the streets.
Rae urged the Mombasa government to mop up street urchins but humanely, respecting their rights.
He said not many people know children's rights in Mombasa. “The county should put the interests of the children first in whatever they do,” Rae said.
Parents, he said, are failing in their parental duties, making children feel safer at school than at home.
“This is the opposite of what it used to be in the past,” Rae said.
Edited by Josephine M. Mayuya