Child prostitutes, beggars flood Mombasa streets

A Mombasa-based human rights organisation has raised alarm over rising number of child prostitutes and street beggars and called for stiffer penalties on their parents.

Haki Africa has condemned the lack of interest by both the county and national governments in the face of such glaring child abuses despite tough national and international laws on the protection of children.

The lobby’s executive director Hussein Khalid said in a statement that children from the age of two years have stormed Mombasa city and other coastal urban streets on a begging mission in the full view of the county and national government officials without any action being taken.

“We are alarmed by the rising number of children out of school allowed to roam around town streets in the coast and forced to do odd businesses by their parents,” said Mr Khalid.

He also accused the parents of not caring about the welfare of their children including education, instead using them as family bread earners.

The children are usually engaged in “ferocious begging” for money from passers-by in the evenings and on weekends, he said adding that while this is happening, parents could be seated at building corners watching while on the other hand, the authorities seem to care less about the children and “facing the other side”.

A United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) report released recently indicates that children at Kenya’s coast engage in child prostitution and pornography.

The report highlights Mtwapa, Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, Voi and Diani towns as ‘red hot’ spots.

“At the moment, many young girls and boys roam aimlessly in our streets when their parents are well aware that their children are not in school and in several instances, the parents actually send them there to beg,” said the statement.

Mr Hussein said that it is this great craving for money that leads children into vibrant prostitution and other social vices like drug abuse.

“Haki Africa demands a stop to this child exploitation by their parents and others who take advantage of their destitution,” he said.

The organisation demands that all children under age 18 are removed from the streets and taken back to school, a total ban on begging be imposed on coastal streets and parents of child street beggars be arrested and prosecuted.