The Kenya Kwanza administration is keen on rehabilitating street families in the wake of the ongoing El Nino rains that has wreaked havoc in several parts of the country.
The initiative that was launched in 2013 has not only seen some of the affected children moved to safe spaces but has also ensured that majority are rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society.
According to Mrs Betty Oranga, the Chairperson Advocacy Street Family & Rehabilitation, the State Department for Social Protection is shifting the focus of rehabilitation of street families from the childrens homes to family and community care.
The reintegration and re-socialization of the street families she says, will be keen on providing a habitable environment in the wake of the ongoing floods and ensure smooth repatriation of the victims back to their families.
The menace that dates back to Independence period has proved a hard nut to crack over the past but with government intervention, the issue may soon be a thing of the past.
Mrs Oranga noted that the Kenya Kwanza administration has come up with a panacea in the form of a policy and is banking on the National Policy on Rehabilitation of Street Families (NPRSF) of 2020 to ensure that streel families are rehabilitated and turned into productive citizens. Success of the exercise.
The NPRSF policy follows the findings of the 2022 census on street families in the country which revealed that Kenya has 46,639 street families and identified the push-and-pull factors that keep them in the streets.
Mrs Betty Oranga who spoke to journalists in Migori town said that over the years, the Trust Fund which was formed in 2003, has been supporting institutions undertaking rehabilitation programs for street families.
“With the County Chapters already launched, we seek to create synergies and enhance coordination of Street Families Rehabilitation programs at the county level and also cascade it to a lower level in addressing the street families’ issues in the wake of the ongoing El Nino rains.
The structures, she said will not only ensure good governance and avoid duplication of efforts and resources in the management of street families, while calling on members of the public to report cases of vulnerable children to authorities.
“The rehabilitation of street families is not a short-term solution but rather a long-term commitment that requires sustained effort and resources. We are calling on members of the public to volunteer information that will ensure we reach out to those still on the streets,” she said.
Mrs Oranga added that SFRTF through the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection was working with partner institutions including rehabilitation centers, religious institutions and children’s homes to holistically address the problem of street families.
“Giving them a house is not enough, they also need psycho-social support, income generating activities and education so that they can stay off the streets,” she said.
Her sentiments were echoed by Mr Byron Oginga, a resident who called on the government to expedite the conduction of another census acros the country to enable for proper planning and logistics.
“A fresh census is necessary for proper planning and logistics. The government should fast track the exercise obtain segregated data to help in conducting rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of street families,” noted Mr Oginga
The pair maintained that, “The government alone cannot solve the issue, and individuals as well as the church, should come on board. Each family is unique and one approach cannot solve the issue. Some of them are addicts and others do not have homes or ran away from home or they were just kicked out’’.
In May 2023, SFRTF disbursed over Sh80, 000,000 seeking to support various rehabilitation programs for street families.
While calling for more budgetary allocations to SFRTF the Chairperson termed the issue of street families as “multi-faceted.”
“To succeed in addressing the increasing number of street families, we should first address the root causes. These include among others poverty, rural-urban migration, broken societal and domestic violence,” she said.
The first national census of street families in the country held in 2018 by the State Department for Social Protection in partnership with Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that the number of street families was 46,639.
The number keeps increasing by the day.
The counties with the highest concentrations of street persons are Nairobi with 15, 337, Mombasa 7, 529, Kisumu 2,746, Uasin Gishu 2,147 and Nakuru 2,005.
Most of the 46,639 street persons were males at 72.4 per cent and females at 27.6 per cent, the majority being the youth at 45.3 per cent followed by children at 33.8 per cent and the older persons at 2.4 per cent according the 2018 National Census of Street Families Report.
The census also revealed that reasons for going to the streets were varied including: fear of being reprimanded, corporal punishment, lack of school fees, mistreatment by relatives and mental illness.
Others include death of parents, domestic violence, peer influence and being born on the streets.
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