KIBWANA: How children view devolution – listen to them

I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child era. Even our parents’ dagger stare was as effective as the rod.

The rod followed us to school. Adults believed children were there to be seen, not heard. Imagine the monumental change 50 years later with the advent of children’s protection under human rights regimes. In 2005, the Canadian International Development Agency observed: The (UN) Convention on the rights of the child insists we listen to children and that their views must inform decisions and actions taken on their behalf…”

What is the legal position of children’s rights in Kenya?

Article 53 of the 2010 Constitution, after comprehensively articulating the rights of children, summarises: a child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child.

Children are those under 18 years. In Makueni County, out of an estimated population of 978,932 (2018), about 500,000 are under 18.

In December 2018, Makueni County in association with World Vision Kenya, Action Aid International, Child Fund Kenya, faith-based organisations and a child’s rights researcher, Dr Zipporah Wambua, gathered 9,700 children aged 8 to 18 in the county’s 60 sub-wards.

Each sub-ward elected a child president and deputy president of opposite gender to steer the child participation meetings with the assistance of few adult facilitators. Care was taken that the adult voice did not become the child’s voice.

The meetings undertook “the child time use” mapping. This had to do with where and how children spent their time each day of the week. The children then explained the challenges they face in the spaces they inhabit.

They also undertook sub-ward mapping. From their perspective, they explained what was happening in their communities and what could be done to achieve the betterment of children, families and the community at large.

I wish to concentrate on the challenges unearthed by the children. They had a myriad of solutions to these shortfalls too.

The main challenge raised was lack of water. Children explained they walked long distances in the evening and weekends to draw water, often waiting in long queues.

Schools, churches, mosques and homes lacked safe drinking water. Many households lacked water tanks and neither did they harvest and conserve water. In Thange ward, an oil spill from Kenya Pipeline Corporation had contaminated the river and so no reliable water source existed.

Children decried the time lost fetching water instead of studying.

The second critical challenge was availability of health personnel and medical drugs in primary health facilities.

Children complained that most dispensaries had only one nurse or clinical officer. When on leave or other official duty, the facility would be non-operational. Currently the county has 188 clinical officers, 763 nurses and 84 doctors serving 178 dispensaries, 47 health centres, nine Level 4 hospitals and one Level 5 referral hospital.

In 2018/2019 financial year, the county has spent 229,765,754.35 on drugs and related commodities while the April 2019 supplementary budget has provided Sh120 million for the same. As observed by the children, the flow of drugs has been hampered by budget flow.

The third main challenge was insecurity at home, en route and from school, in market centres, especially at night, unfenced earth dams, and from marauding Tsavo National Park elephants. Often some children fail to attend school due to this menace.

Apparently, the children identified the domestic arena as the most serious habitat of violence against them. They said domestic violence affects them mentally, academically and psychologically. It retards their learning.

Parents fight in their presence, in the course of which children are sometimes injured. Children are also defiled at home and elsewhere.

Children spoke against excessive drunkenness causing violence and under provision of basic needs. They revealed that they often share the same room with parents and feel it is not morally right.

The children also highlighted the plight of their urban peers along Nairobi-Mombasa highway. Street children lack basic needs especially housing, education and parental guidance. The boys are often exposed to sexual exploitation. The street girls and other girls become victims of commercial sex work. Video parlours and mobile phones purveyed explicit content.

The children’s public participation meeting exposed that many parents don’t provide the girl child with sanitary towels leaving boda boda (motor cycle taxi) operators to do so.

Another key challenge was the early childhood learning environment. Children said ECDE classes and teachers were inadequate, some lacked textbooks, furniture, and school feeding programme. Currently, the county has employed 900 ECDE teachers to serve primary schools.

Parents still employ a second teacher in the ECDE centres situated within the 902 public primary schools and at least two teachers in the 366 public and private satellite ECDE schools.

Children talked of poor nutrition and lack of food at home and school. They have one or at most two meals a day. Often, they can’t concentrate in their studies, especially in the afternoons. Sometimes, they skip school due to hunger.

Another challenge was poor roads, especially during the wet seasons. The road networks, some with gullies, impede easy movement to school. In the school’s vicinity, there is usually no signage to guarantee safety from vehicles and motor cycles.

Children also said they lacked well developed sporting facilities and equipment for both themselves and the youth. Further, talent identification and development were not prioritised.

Another challenge related to drug and substance abuse especially of muguka, a cheaper variant of miraa, lack of household energy especially for studying at night, school fees, libraries, knowledge on children’s rights, and absence of a county child protection policy and law.

During the 2nd children’s national devolution conference held in Nairobi County in February 2019, the children leaders observed: “Devolution is good for children… The national and county governments (should) ensure child participation in decision-making in issues affecting them.”

The voice of children must be heard. In Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them…”

Prof Kibwana is governor of Makueni.