David Macharia
6 September 2007
Nairobi — They came clutching their glue bottles, and although some had inhaled the substance and looked intoxicated, they were peaceful.
But what the more than 200 street people did not know was that they were making history of sorts by being the first group of street boys to have a national identification card issuance drive specifically organised for them.
That was last Friday and the venue was Eldoret West Social Hall.
Uasin Gishu District was first in Kenya to design a system that made it possible and easy for street boys to get their identity cards.
It was also a day of joy for a group of former street boys who had been pushing for an easier and friendlier way for their colleagues to acquire IDs.
The former street boys had formed a lobby group - the Ex-street Children Community-Based Organisation - which campaigned for recognition and consideration for street people to easily be issued with ID cards.
The Uasin Gishu District senior registrar of persons, Mr Thomas Gekonde, said the drive was made possible by cooperation of his office, department of children and that of health and the lobby group.
The department of children helped in verifying the nationality while that of health assisted in ascertaining age. The lobby group helped to mobilise the applicants.
The lobby group's officials, Mr Joshua Lubale (chairman), Mr Benson Juma Akumu (organising secretary) and Mr Peter Njenga (secretary) had the hardest task: visiting street children's hideouts and sensitising the young people on the need to apply for ID cards.
The three officials were at hand to assist four officers from Mr Gekonde's office to make sure the exercise was smooth.
The ID issuing exercise was stress-free and devoid of anxiety. Those who came complaining they were not aware of the exercise just accepted a promise to be included next time.
Mr Lubale said chiefs had been the biggest hurdle in the effort to have the street people get IDs.
In most cases, he said, the chiefs were not available to sign application forms or at times kept off complaining that the forms to be signed were too many.
The other obstacle had been swearing affidavits for those aged above 18 years. The affidavit was to explain why the applicant was late to get the document.
Because the street people could not provide copies of parents' IDs, somebody had to swear an affidavit. This is when the assistance of the lobby officials was needed most.
The district registrar of persons said the exercise was a culmination of two months of planning.
Mr Gekonde said the period of one acquiring an ID had been reduced to 30 days. That means by the end of this month, the more than 200 street people will be among the 40,000 in Uasin Gishu to have acquired IDs since last January.
Mr Lubale, Mr Njenga and Mr Akumu are a product of various children's homes in Uasin Gishu but feel the homes were not doing enough to rehabilitate the children.
They accused the homes of being centres of oppression and mistreatment. They said it was their experience in the homes that they decided to form the organisation to help their comrades.
They said that none of the homes had been able to fight for issuance of IDs to street people. Those in the homes, they said, grew up and left without the identification documents.
The lobbyists joined the homes with a lot of expectations - they expected their lives to change for the better after going through rough times in the street at tender age.
Today the three look back with a lot of bitterness because the homes did not mould them to be what they wished to be in life.
Instead, they were released back to the streets and found things worse than before, a fact that has made many people who passed through the homes to end up in prison, becoming criminals or prostitutes.
"There are so many children's homes in the country. Why don't we see the children trooping from streets to these homes? Instead we see children running away from the homes to go back to the streets," they said.
The three lobbyists are convinced there is something not right in the homes for them not to be attractive to street children.
One thing they are sure of is that the homes lack role models. "When those children in the streets look at the products of these homes, do they see anybody who has made it in life after leaving the homes?" Mr Lubale asks.
Three challenged the management of all the homes in the country to account for the children that had passed through them since their inception. The lobbyists are of the opinion that the homes would be shocked to learn that a large percentage of children who passed through them are in prisons today.
While the public expectation is that the homes should shape the behaviour and life of their charges, the truth is that it is in them that hardcore criminals are bred, immorality abounds and children's rights are violated.
The three are bitter because they feel that they were used as a bait to attract donor funds by the home owners who used religion to cover up their lust for wealth.
They recall seeing many of them being photographed and believe that the pictures were sent to donors to convince them to fund maintenance and upkeep of the children in the homes.
The homes were established by people who did not care to understand the problems that had driven the children to the streets and try to fix the same. The institutions don't define the entry point for the children and what is expected of them at the exit point.
"We feel we were not adequately prepared to face life by these rehabilitation centres," Mr Lubale says.
The children leave the homes without national identity cards or birth certificates. The management of most of the institutions is not keen to see the children achieve the highest education possible, better medicare or comfort after leaving the institutions.
This reality dawned on Mr Lubale when he sat his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and was admitted to Paul Boit Boys' School in Uasin Gishu District in 1999.
When he approached the owner of the home with the good news, the man told him that God was yet to inform him to take him to secondary school.
The success of the ID issuance to the street people in Uasin Gishu District, championed by ex-street people is an indicator that the solution of street families lies with them since they understand their problems.
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