Kenya: Child Labour, Marriage and Trafficking Keep Millions of Kenyans Out
of School
By Katy Migiro,
17 June 2014
Millions of Kenyan children miss out on school because they are forced to
work, are married or trafficked, the child rights charity Plan International
said on Monday.
In Kenya, more than 80 percent of children attend primary school but less
than half receive a secondary education, according to the United Nations
children's fund, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation.
"Child marriage, child labour and child trafficking: we have a high
correlation between those three areas and children not being in school,"
Plan's regional director Roland Angerer told a news conference.
"There is also a reverse correlation that means if children are in school
then the risk that they are exposed to one of these three threats is much
lower."
Primary education is free in Kenya but fees ranging from about $100 to
$1,000 lock millions of poor children out of secondary school.
CHILD LABOUR
In Kenya, there are around one million child labourers, aged between five
and 17, according to the government. Nine out of ten live in rural areas.
"Poverty is the main driver why children are being sent to work," Angerer
said.
Most boys work on farms and girls do household chores while their mothers
are out at work.
"These girls, they are 10 years, 12 years old," said Angerer. "They get up
at five in the morning. They fetch water. They make fires. They cook. They
look after siblings at home."
By the time the girls go to school, they are too tired to concentrate or do
homework and usually end up dropping out, he said.
Child labour is illegal in Kenya but the law is not enforced.
"It's a toothless law. There are hardly any penalties ever issued against
people who employ children," said Angerer.
BRIDE PRICE
Poverty also drives child marriage in Kenya, as well as traditional cultures
which seek to prevent pre-marital sex.
"Poor families expect something in return for giving their daughters away in
marriage," said Angerer. "They get some bride price [dowry] for them and if
they are poor this is a considerable income for the family."
In Kenya, one in four children is married by the age of 18. There are
considerable regional variations, with rates as low as seven percent in the
capital, Nairobi, and as high as 56 percent in the northeast of the country,
Plan said.
SEX WORK
Data on child trafficking is harder to come by.
Up to 17,500 persons are trafficked in Kenya every year and 50 percent of
them are children, Plan said, citing a 2008 report by the International
Organization for Migration.
"They are trafficked into the country or from rural areas to urban areas or
tourist centres basically for three purposes - commercial sex work, domestic
work and agricultural work," Angerer said.
"The main driver is poverty and what is really sad to see and to hear is
that in many places parents themselves are colluding with child traffickers
to give away their children."
Increased access to secondary education would protect some of these
children, Plan said.
"The majority of children who are being trafficking have finished primary
school and have nothing else to do," Angerer said.
"If we can offer a good transition from primary to secondary school, the
risk of being trafficked, of being exposed to traffickers, of being lured
into some dubious opportunities is much lower."
Last week, Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, promised to introduce free
secondary education within three years.