One of the most conspicuous symbols of poverty is the growing number of children in the streets: children making a living by scavenging, hawking and soliciting while their peers are in school. They constitute the category of humanity which has been a feature of urban life all over the developing world. According to Alianza (2000), an estimated 10 million children live and work in the streets of the developing world. Most street children 75 % have some family links but spend most of their lives on the streets begging, selling trinkets, shining shoes or washing cars to supplement their families’ income. The rest 25 % live in the streets, often in groups of other children. They sleep in abandoned buildings, under bridges, in doorways or in the …show more content…
In 1989, UNICEF estimated 100 million children were growing upon urban streets around the world. 14 years later UNICEF reported: ‘The latest estimates put the numbers of these children as high as 100 million.’ In Nairobi, the number increased from 3,600 in 1989 to 40,000 in 1995 and 60,000 in 1997. By 1999, the number in Mombasa had reached 5,000; in Kisumu 4,000; in Malindi and Kilifi, 2,500each, and in Kitale and Nakuru, 2,000 each (Shorter and Onyancha, 1999). One estimate, by the consortium of street children (CSC), an international charity, suggests that the number of street children could be as high as between 250,000 and 300,000 throughout Kenya. From the above statistics, one gathers that street children can be found in all major towns in Kenya. According to African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) November 1994, the genesis of the phenomenon of the street children in Kenya goes back to the early 1950s when colonial government broke up families by imprisoning men and women, or by taking them away to concentration camps. The children were left helpless and they wandered off into the streets of Nairobi in the hope of finding some means of