By Martha Sunda | Program Coordinator - Child Helpline
Greetings from Kenya!
Your continued support to the Child Helpline is giving life to the children of Kenya and beyond ...... Fi is a 15 year old girl from Uganda who was brought to Kenya in August 2014 to work as a house help in Nairobi. She was a Class 5 Pupil at a school in Uganda. One evening, early this year, her employer threw her out of the house at night. It is not yet clear why she was thrown out. She was found by police officers on patrol in the area and handed over to the Government Children Officer in the morning. FI’s case was handed over to the Child Helpline Team and we placed her at a safe shelter pending tracing of her family and eventual reintegration.
Further investigations revealed that Fi’s employer was not even paying her and still owes her about 45 USD in salary arrears. Efforts to trace her employer so that she can be arrested are ongoing. We however have information that her family of origin is aware of the employer and are looking for Fi. We have contacted them and instructed that they should be accompanied by Fi’s employer before they can access the girl so that legal action is instituted against the employer for child labour and for being an accomplice in child trafficking.
The Child Helpline Team is also liasing with the Uganda Child Welfare Officers to ensure that Fi, is well repatriated back to her community and back to school and the necessary action is taken towards her parents for being an accomplice in child trafficking
Kenya is both a source and transit of trafficked children. Children are trafficked from neighbouring countries and exploited to hard labour. They children sleep in the goat pens and are paid some amount for the work done and some amount is also sent to their parents for offering their children to work.
The community contact people say the situation is made worse by the fact this is a very well organized cartel supported by the corrupt environment in the country. Any attempt to report these cases of child exploitation is risky on the person reporting. They are easily traced and eliminated. No one therefore is willing to report such cases to the authorities for fear of being exposed. This is the reason why the anonymity nature of the Child Helpline makes it easy for people to report suspected child trafficking cases for investigation and possible arrest.
Below is a feature by the CNN on Child trafficking and child labour in one of the markets in Nairobi.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/15/kenya.child.labor)
*Names changed to protect the Child's identity and location*
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