Underage children hawking tissue papers(courtesy)
Nairobi Central Business District(CBD) has been invaded by under age children who are now engaging in the hawking business.
Nairobi City County Inspectorate and social services department says it has not been easy containing the children at rehabilitation centers and special schools.
According to head of Inspectorate Tito Kilonzi they have arresting them but few days they are back again on street a move that can only be explained by rehabilitation center officers.
‘‘We arrest these children daily, our duties ends at arresting them but its also shocking that there are those who still sneak from rehabilitation centers,’’ Kilonzo said.
Current statistics shows that Nairobi county government holds 306 children.
Glue sniffing boys have been joined by children hawking sweets.
When the children are not hawking peanuts , chewing gum or sweets they are hawking tissue papers .Unlike other children who head home to begin working on their homework once school is done, this underage hawkers rush home to change before picking rolls of groundnuts, chewing gums or tissue papers to hawk around the city.
Recent attempts by the county to remove the beggars from CBD has also failed with those doing business by the disables still thriving in the city.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2017 projections, the city has a population of four million with over 60 per cent locked in the informality, informal sector and informal settlement. This population is either intermittently employed, underemployed or unemployed but faced with numerous needs that they must fulfill.
The poor are drawn to cities as sites of social and livelihood opportunity. The power and attraction of cities is closely tied to the economic opportunities that they often provide. Successful and sustainable cities tend to create wealth for their elite and livelihood opportunities for others.
Depending on the economic circumstances, a large proportion of the population can see significantly better living and working conditions in the contemporary world — as demonstrated in many parts of East Asia, especially in China.