Social-political Factors Affecting Street Children in Kenya after the 2007/2008 Post Election Violence: A Case of Street Children in Eldoret Town

Abstract

The study sought to establish the socio – political factors affecting street children in Eldoret town after the 2007/2008 Post Election Violence (PEV) in Kenya. The study was guided by the following three specific objectives. First to establish the social and political factors that affect street children in Kenya; second to identify challenges facing the promotion of children rights with regard to the legal provisions and thirdly to establish interventions adopted to alleviate the problem of street children in Eldoret by the government and NGOs. Chapter two comprised of the literature review which covered social and political factors affecting street children, challenges associated with children rights, street child focused interventions which include government and non – government interventions. The theoretical framework and conceptual framework are also given in this section. Chapter three presents the research methodology and the research design was descriptive survey which targeted street children, social workers from NGOs and officers and from department of Children and Eldoret municipality. Data was collected using questionnaires for street children, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with three groups of street children and one FGD with social workers and key informant interviews were conducted with children officers and municipal officers. Study findings show that street children in Eldoret face myriad social challenges which included poor access to health facilities where they were discriminated against and were also required to buy medication prescribed to them by health providers. Security was also a major problem where they were constantly at risk of facing violence from themselves, security agents, business community and the public. The study further established that there was poor coordination and duplication of services provided by the government and non – government organisations which often had a poor impact on the street children situation. The study suggests that government and other stakeholders should conduct community awareness creation and sensitization on the challenges facing street children at the community level; need for a sector-wide training approach for service providers involved in dealing with street children at all levels be developed, by the government in collaboration with stakeholders to provide holistic services to street children; government agencies mandated with street children services should be well staffed to enable them deliver quality services to street children and an establishment of information desks at police stations to identify, track and follow up with street children whom are picked up from the town streets and protection of street children from politically influenced conflicts which often leads to their vulnerability as victims and perpetrators of ensuing violence. The study suggests need for further research to identify the number of Charitable Children Institutions (CCIs) in Eldoret Town and the services provided to street children and the impact they have had; what assistance street children from Eldoret Town would benefit from and further research on health cases and challenges that street children experience in Eldoret Town