Civil group blasts govt for allegedly asking street children to produce birth certificates for ID registration

By , K24 Digital
On Wed, 15 Dec, 2021 10:56 | < 1 min read
Street family. PHOTO/COURTESY

A civil group known as Zero Street Children Foundation has urged the government to address the plight of distraught street families in Nairobi.

The group wants the government to take action against the Nairobi County askaris who make random arrests of the families without any charges being levelled against them.

The foundation's boss Peter Ndiboe said that the Street Children's Rehabilitation Trust Fund formed by the government is moribund and should take proactive measures to save the downtrodden families.

“Most of these urchins you see in the streets have nothing to eat and it’s even worse when they are rounded up and jailed. This is not the kind of way to treat the less fortunate members of the society,” Ndiboe said.

Ndiboe further faulted the government for mistreating the street families by asking them for birth certificates to get identification cards.

According to him, most street children have no parents hence it is difficult for them to produce birth certificates.

“You ask these children for birth certificates to get IDs. Is there anyone of them who even knows their parents? Some of these children were born in the slums and abandoned, and some of their parents died,” he said.

The recent census shows that Nairobi has the highest number of street families in Kenya and houses about 6,743 streets families.

The Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF) said they are on course to rescue all these families.

They further said they will set up a program that will see the rescued children taken through both formal and informal education.

On its side, the Nairobi County Government has revealed its plans to spend Ksh40 million in rescuing the street children.