Fifty-two street children from Nyeri town have been taken to Thunguma Children’s Home and Rehabilitation Centre.
The move is to protect them from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The measure was taken after identification of possible risk areas by the County Covid-19 Emergency Response Committee, which said the street children are exposed.
Gender, Youth and Social Services CEC Esther Ndung’u said they were targeting about 100 children but only managed to round-up 52 as the others escaped.
Ndung’u said she had received information that there were about 200 children roaming the town’s streets.
However, some come from their homes and spend their day time in the streets begging before going back home where they spend the night.
The children were converging at Whispers Park in Nyeri town daily where good Samaritans fed them after hotels were closed down.
“About 80 children have been going to take lunch at Whispers Park but only about 60 showed up when we were planning to round them up. When we got there, some of them escaped,” she told the Star on Friday.
She said some may have gotten reports that they would be rounded up.
Governor Mutahi Kahiga visited the home on Friday and spoke with the children, assuring them that the government meant well for them.
Kahiga pledged his full support to the initiative and promised to be checking on them occasionally to find out their progress.
Thunguma Children's home has been running since 2006 as a home for street families. It is well-equipped with accommodation facilities, catering facilities, a health unit and enough space for recreation activities.
“We have been reaching out to well-wishers to provide clothing among other necessities,” Ndung’u said.
The street children will first undergo counselling and thereafter those who are within schoolgoing ages will be taken back to school.
Those who are past the ages will undergo life skills training courses in the county’s vocational training institutions to make them self-reliant.
The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), Nyeri branch, last week donated 100 mattresses and 100 blankets to support the rehabilitation programme.
KNCCI Nyeri branch chairman Ibrahim Ndegwa said, “This will remove the children from the dangers of the streets which include the Covid-19 pandemic.”
