Feature: Little joy for Kenyan child hawkers as world marks children's day

Carrying a bowl full of groundnuts, little John approached different pedestrians on the streets of Nairobi, Kenya's capital, begging them to buy his wares.

It was about 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, and as the pedestrians rushed to catch a bus home, for John, the day had just started. A young woman rushed past him in the dimly lit streets as John, almost running, approached her.

Not knowing how to respond, he walked away embarrassed and straight to a middle-aged man and woman, who were engaging in banter as they strolled on the street. "Groundnuts at 0.21 U.S. dollars a packet, please buy," he beseeched the couple. The woman told the man to buy.

He reached into his wallet, fished out a note and gave the boy, but he did not take the groundnuts. Little John thanked them profusely as he preyed on another pedestrian, seemingly uncaring of the biting night cold that had started to set in.

It had rained in Nairobi that evening, but the cold was clearly the last thing on John's mind. He had to finish his wares lest his mother somewhere in Korogocho slums on the east of Nairobi accuses him of failing to work hard enough.

"I will not leave until after 9:30 p.m," he said while trying and persuading people to buy his wares. "I normally walk to the terminus, and board the vehicle home myself. My mother stopped accompanying me three months ago."

John, though a Class Four pupil in a slum school, has to help his mother make ends meet.

"I normally leave school at 4:30 p.m., go home and change into civilian clothes before picking the groundnuts and coming to town to sell," said the 10-year-old.

His plight captures that of dozens of children from poor backgrounds who flock Nairobi streets every evening to sell different items and beg as they help their parents provide.

So many are the children, some as young as three years, that the public and authorities are alarmed by the abuse.

While some are accompanied by their parents who sit at a distance watching over them and collecting the money they get from selling or begging, a good number like John are always on their own.

These children would have nothing to commemorate about the International Children's Day marked Monday across the world.

The day is marked to recognize strides made in protecting children and assess what more needs to be done. However, John would still be on the street Monday selling groundnuts.

"During public and school holidays, I leave home at 2:00 p.m. for the city center because I do not go to school," said John, adding he makes up to 5 dollars on a good evening, money that caters their needs.

Cynthia Wanjiku, a social worker with a community-based organization in Korogocho, attributed the rise in the number of the children on the streets to poverty and change of tactics to get income by their parents.

"It is obvious that poverty is biting, the reason the families live in the slum in the first place. But the parents are using their children to avoid being arrested by Nairobi City Council officials," said Wanjiku.

"Hawking without a licence is wrong and so is begging, but the parents know the officials cannot arrest or harass children, which is why they use them," she added.

Among the children live in the several slums surrounding Nairobi, Korogocho, said Wanjiku, produces a good number.

"When they return home after 9:00 p.m., their parents wait for them on the fringes of the slum to escort them home lest they lose all the money they have made to goons. It is a dangerous business because even small girls are involved in the hawking, exposing themselves to rape."

Alarmed by the rise in young hawkers and beggars, Nairobi County government leaders recently drafted and passed a bill to curb the menace.

The bill, that is yet to be signed into law, called for arrest and prosecution of parents who let their children hawk in the streets. However, Wanjiku noted that the law may not help if poverty is not addressed.

Kenya has also children working as laborers in different sectors including mining, tea and household.

The International Labor Organization estimates that about 2 million children between ages six and 14 work as child laborers in Kenya. Endi