The Street Child Phenomenon
Kitale has a particularly large population of street children with estimates of between 200 and over 500 children on the streets at any one time. Estimates vary depending on how one defines a street child; should one limit it to those who spend all their time on the streets?'Street Children' can be broadly divided into 3 groups:
- those who live, sleep and carry out all their daily activities on the street;
- those who spend all day on the streets but return home in the evenings (this group normally contribute to the family income); and the final, much larger group, are
- those who spend some of their time on the streets, some in more or less formal employment and the rest of their time at home (this group could be defined as 'for the street' and this group also contributes to family income).
For street workers, all three groups must be considered legitimate as all three groups are being denied some of their most basic of human rights.Calculations of which ethnic groups constitute the majority of street children also depend on ones definition of street children. These tables illustrate this.
Here Kitale 'Street Children' are divided into the 3 groups:
a) Those who live, sleep and carry out all their daily activities on the street.
b) Those who spend all day on the streets.
c) Those who spend some of their time on the streets.
NB. Statistics are from a sample survey by npyt of 100 Kitale street children.
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