Child abuse:- a survey in Nairobi

Abstract

The study on child abuse was carried out in Nairobi between 1989-1992 to determine the magnitude of the problem (child abuse). The increased rate of press reports on incidents of child-abuse, sometimes leading to the death of the children involved prompted me to carry out the research. The objectives of, the study were to investigate the nature and extent of child abuse in Kenya in general and Nairobi in particular, to find out whether there is a relationship between gender and child abuse, to find out the type of families that make children more vulnerable to abuse, to find out the kind of parents who are more likely to abuse their children, to find out the risk factors in the child. The theoretical rationale of this study was that parts of the family; that is, the father, mother and children, have roles and functions which they play to maintain the family as a system. The success or failure of any of these parts in performing their roles effectively may render children more vulnerable to abuse. A total of sixty five abused children and seventy three parents of the abused children above were interviewed. Thus sample involved, eight cases of sexually abused children, fourteen cases of physically abused children, twenty cases of neglected children, twenty three cases of abandoned children, and seventy three parents of the abused children above. All the cases were drawn form those dealt with at the provincial office of the Children's Department in Nairobi. Systematic sampling technique was used to select the sample of respondents and a questionnaire and observation were used in the data collection. Basic statistics such as the mean, mode and variance among others have been used to analyse the data. The most significant finding of this study is that child abandonment accounts for the highest percentage of abused children in Nai robi (thirty five percent). Thirty one percent of the children were neglected, twenty two percent were physically abused and twelve percent were sexually abused, suggesting that child abuse is on the increase in Nairobi . In conclusion, this study found that the risk factors in the family included low levels of income (57 %) and large number of siblings (65 %) among others. The significant factors relating to parents included single parenthood (80 %), drinking of alcohol (53 %), the level of education (70 %), and physical and/or mental status (10 %). The risk factors in the child were found to be illegitimacy (14 %), the sex of the child (10 %), and the child's physical and/or mental status (9 %). The study made several recommendations. These include among others further research on child abuse using a larger sample to establish the nature and extent of child abuse in Kenya. The study also recommends for an establishment of detection and protection programmes, community education and mobilization, general family support, treatment programmes, professional training, national health policies, day care centres and stern judicial measures as ways of combating child abuse