Nakuru: The government through the State Department for Social Protection has commenced training of over 300 social workers drawn from all the 47 counties who will be enumerators in the upcoming national census of street families even as preparations for the exercise gets on top gear.
According to Kenya News Agency, Chairperson of Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF) Ms. Mary Wamboi explained that the national census of street families that will be conducted countrywide will be carried out by the State Department for Social Protection in collaboration with Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and with the support of United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Ms. Wamboi said the census aims to obtain segregated data to help in conducting rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration of street families and would help in obtaining an actual street population for planning on how to zero rate street families. She said the census was also aimed at providing appropriate living conditions and identifying the best method of reintegrating street individuals into society. ‘We are undertaking a census so that we can have a breakdown not only of identifying which ones are Kenyans and those who are not, but also where they come from in Kenya,’ she said.
The Chairperson spoke in Nakuru when she inaugurated a five-day induction programme for over 300 social workers drawn from all the 47 counties who will be enumerators in the third national census for street families that kicks off on June 30, and ends on July 9 this year. The first national census of street families in the country was held in 2018 by the State Department for Social Protection in partnership with Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Ms. Wamboi at the same time, said the government in collaboration with Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF) was providing persons living on the streets with practical training in various trades, enabling them to secure employment or become entrepreneurs. Ms. Wamboi disclosed that the Fund had acquired a 20-acre parcel of land in Mavoko within Machakos County where it planned to construct a Vocational Training Centre exclusively targeting persons living on the streets aged 14 years and over, adding that the programme will involve partnerships with existing Technical Vocational Training Institutions and other stakeholders to offer relevant skills training and support.
She indicated that the government through Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF) recognises the vulnerability of street families and is taking steps to address their needs through skills development to empower street families across all the 47 counties with the skills and resources they need to become self-reliant and improve their living conditions. Ms. Wamboi pointed out that SFRTF was promoting rescue, reintegration, and re-socialisation of the street families into community care as this was solving the problem which occurs when those placed in the homes attain 18 years.
She added that SFRTF through the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection was working with partner institutions including rehabilitation centres, religious institutions and children’s homes to holistically address the problem of street families. ‘The government alone cannot solve the issue, and individuals as well as the church, should come on board. Each family is unique and one approach cannot solve the issue. Some of them are addicts and others do not have homes or ran away from home or they were just kicked out,’ the chairperson elaborated.
She went on to say that giving the families a house was not enough, as they also needed psycho-social support, income generating activities and education to help them stay off the streets. The Chairperson termed the issue of street families as multi-faceted and needed to be addressed from the root causes including poverty, rural-urban migration, broken societal and domestic violence. Ms. Wamboi added that people had become too individualistic, another issue that was driving some to the streets because they are not able to share the things afflicting them.
Kenya has a total of 46,639 people living on the streets, out of which 72.4 percent are male, according to the 2018 National Census of Street Families Report. The counties with the highest concentrations of street persons are Nairobi with 15,337, Mombasa 7,529, Kisumu 2,746, Uasin Gishu 2,147 and Nakuru 2,005. Most of the street persons were males at 72.4 percent and females at 27.6 percent, the majority being the youth at 45.3 percent followed by children at 33.8 percent and the older persons at 2.4 percent.
The second census revealed that reasons for going to the streets were varied which included fear of being reprimanded, corporal punishment, lack of school fees, mistreatment by relatives and mental illness. Others include the death of parents, domestic violence, peer influence and being born on the streets. Majority of the children who lived on the streets with parents were below 10 years of age while 24 percent were orphans. 20 percent of the street persons did not know the whereabouts of their parents.
The Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF) was established in 2003 but became operational in 2019. SFRTF Board Member Ms. Nancy Oranga said they would be conducting an audit of institutions that had received monies from the Fund towards rehabilitating and reintegrating street families into the community. She said the census would inform the Fund’s future strategies and programmes towards reintegrating street families into society.
Ms. Oranga stated that SFRTF through Public-Private partnerships was working to reintegrate the street persons back to the community by addressing discrimination and stigma, rejection and exclusion from the mainstream society. ‘Even after rehabilitation, street children continue to feel excluded from society and mistreated, despite the fact that all they want is to fit in and live normal lives,’ added the Board Member. Ms. Oranga disclosed that the census will capture data on various aspects of street families, including the socio-economic and political factors behind their circumstances.