35 street children rounded up for rehab reunion

“I would rather find your dead body if you come back here.”

These words are still fresh in the mind of Jeff (not his real name), two years after his mother told him to get out.

The 11-year-old was told off by his mother, which he says was the last communication he had with her before running away from what used to be their home in Busia.

“I just want to continue surviving because what my mum told me still pains me to this day,” the boy said in tears. 

Jeff said he believes his mother's lack of affection for him was probably prompted by her separation from his father. 

"My mother always seemed bitter after the separation and would mistreat me. I feel safer in the street rather than at home with her,"he added.

He is among the 35 street urchins rescued on Friday at Uhuru Park  by  Mary Wambui, known as Shosh, through a government initiative aimed at rehabilitating Nairobi street children.

Twenty-nine boys, aged four to 14 years, were taken to Familia ya Ufariji Children's Home in Kahawa West while the rest were spread to two other centres.

A woman and her two children were taken to Ustawi in Thika, while three who were older than  18 were  taken to Ebenezer.

The government initiative is in collaboration with the Street Families  Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF)

It is a concerted government concerted effort to ensure the numbers of children in the streets are reduced, especially the school going ones.

SFRTF children's officer Mburu Waiganjo said once the children have been taken from the streets, they will be taken to safe homes already identified within the city.

"Eventually family tracing will be done and thereafter reintegration where they will be reunited with their families,” she said.

At the other corner of the room, 13-year-old James (not his real name) shared about circumstances that pushed him to the streets.

“I just woke up one day in 2019 and found my father was gone. I was in Class Six,” he recounted.

"It was almost the end of the month and the landlord came knocking at our door demanding rent. I reached my father on the phone and he said he had gone to the village,"he said.

The 13-year-old went to beg on the streets for two months and finally was able to raise their Sh3,000 monthly rent.

"It became burdensome so I moved out and that is how I started living on the streets," he said.

The street families said most of them go to Uhuru Park for a swim just to get clean, while others  pay Sh20 for public ablution facilities.

Food for them while in the streets is usually not hard to find. Their greatest challenge is where to sleep at night and harassment by the authorities.

“Many people we come across while begging are always so generous as they easily offer us their leftovers. We however get harassed all the time by authorities and even members of the public," one boy said.

Purity Njiru, a social worker at Ufariji, said rehabilitation process in the institution takes about three months after which they start integration.

"Three months is enough. We offer provide needs, food clothes and shelter. We have to trace their families because a child is best placed with their families rather than in any other institution," she said.

(Edited by V. Graham)