The Intergenerational Dialogue Forum, organised by Joining Forces for Africa (Jofa), recently brought together children and stakeholders involved in child protection, who met in Lodwar, Turkana county.
Boys and girls from schools in Kakuma and the refugee camp hosted there listed drug abuse, poverty and early and forced marriages as the main challenges hindering their dreams.
Teenage girls in Turkana are highly valued as a source of dowry wealth. Parents often receive a lot of livestock when they are married off.
As such, many girls have become victims of gender-based violence, early pregnancies and forced early marriages, locking them out of school.
Ikodor* (real name withheld), 16, a Class 8 pupil at Kakuma Mixed Primary School, said she was rescued from an early and forced marriage two years ago.
“We hardly got food to eat due to the poverty situation at home,” she said.
“I knew the only way to overcome this was to put more effort into my studies and get a better job to change the situation. But when my father married me off to the old man for livestock, I knew my dreams had been shattered. But luckily I was rescued.”
Ikodor said her father had forcibly married her off to a 45-year-old man in exchange for livestock.
She said poverty is pushing girls from poor families into early marriage for survival.
The girl urged children's agencies and law enforcers to tackle early marriages to enable kids to school freely.
Ikidor said stakeholders should provide sanitary towels and innerwear to girls who had dropped out.
I knew the only way to overcome this was to put more effort into my studies and get a better job to change the situation. But when my father married me off to the old man for livestock, I knew my dreams had been shattered
USED TO SELL DRUGS
Boys and girls are also driven into drug and substance abuse by virtue of peer pressure.
This drug abuse was blamed for poor academic performance.
The dialogue revealed that children are consuming hard drugs and being used to peddle drugs, leading to absenteeism in school.
A survey conducted between June 2020 and February 2021, shows at least 160,000 girls got married during the period schools were closed following the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Those affected were aged between 15 and 19, according to the Presidential Policy and Strategy Unit study, titled 'Impact of Covid-19 on Adolescents'.
The study also shows another 100,000 girls were plunged into motherhood after they were impregnated during the nine months schools were closed. Most of the girls have just given birth.
Chol*, 12, a pupil at Kakuma Mixed Primary, said both boys and girls are involved in drug abuse by virtue of peer pressure.
“There are parts of Kakuma town, like Laini Moja, where children are used to openly sell mild and hard drugs. Children are not only using drugs but also selling the same drugs to adults and fellow children,” he said.
Chol said some drugs penetrate the nation through the border from neighbouring countries.
He said boys use tricky ways of sourcing money from parents or guardians to buy the drugs, such as stealing money and goods from both family and friends.
Chol said others lie to their parents about the need for some needs only to use the money for drugs, selling scrap metal, begging by pretending to be orphans and selling food rations to get money for drugs.
He urged stakeholders to conduct more training to sensitise and equip them with skills and knowledge to prevent drug abuse.
Other issues raised include long distances covered to access courts, which are only found in significant towns, adults exposing children to various forms of child labour, and parents putting pressure on children over grades, which depresses them.
Learners said schools have feeding programmes but they are not given enough food since supervisors end up selling the food.
Moreover, some teachers, especially the ones living with physical disability, don’t manage their stress well, and they use corporal punishment.
And schools are also asking for money for KCSE registration, yet learners cannot afford it.
EMERGING ISSUES
The stakeholders represented the national and county governments, including the Department of Children Services, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Judiciary and National Police.
The meeting focused on engaging 49 children from both the host community and Kakuma Refugee Camp.
Jofa is protecting the rights of children and adolescents to experience reduced levels of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect.
It is a consortium of six child-centred NGOs, including Child Fund, Plan International, SOS Children's Village, Save the Children, World Vision and Terres Des Homes.
In Kenya, Jofa Project is being implemented by World Vision.
World Vision Turkana programme manager Toma Masinde says the major themes that emerged from the dialogue include health, nutrition, security and safety.
Others are opportunities for early learning, responsive caregiving, child participation and access to justice.
Masinde says the project works with families, communities and institutions to raise awareness and improve capacity to protect children.
“There has been continuous sensitisation and training on child protection preventive measures, especially engagement with parents on how they can best protect their children,” he said.
Other measures are having to follow up actions such as community dialogues and dialogues in the children's clubs and peer networks, in collaboration with child protection service providers.
More than 10,000 children participated in life skills, peer support and other structured support programmes, while more than 3,000 children engaged in a social accountability mechanism on child protection issues.
VALUE OF TALKS
Philip Nzenge, director in charge of strategic intervention at the Children's Services department, said they had the opportunity to engage children and find out the challenges they go through in school.
“On the issue of family, children raised the concern of guardians or parents who don’t take keen interest to know where the child is at every time,” he said, invoking a principle that no child should walk alone.
“Others are engaging in drug abuse and other vices in town.”
Kakuma law courts resident magistrate Ivan Rono said the dialogue is the best approach to getting the views of children directly unlike before, when they used to rely on an adult to get information.
“The children’s dialogue with stakeholders is the best because we get the views of a child from a child. Unlike sometimes back, when we used to rely on adults to report on what children are facing,” he said.
“But now, we have seen confident children telling us what they are facing back in the village and school, and it’s valuable for the service providers.”
Rono said a child is innocent, and the moment they tell you something, it comes either from the heart or from experience. They need such forums to get information from children, he added.
He said they have noted a considerable reduction in defilement cases from 2021,2022 to 2023, and that has been attributed to the two magistrates in the station.
“We have reduced the number of defilement cases. We have worked tirelessly and recognised as the most improved court in the country,” he said.
“And that’s due to the good work and efforts we have with court officers and stakeholders, which is something we don’t take for granted and we hope to continue improving.”
Rono said they have a good relationship with the police, who can share data of whatever they get so that they know the gaps.
“Street children is a thorny issue. We have a plan as court users committee. We are going to meet to discuss ways and modalities on how we can put street children together and understand why they are in the streets,” he said.
