OKEYO: African child, please forgive us
As we commemorate the Day of the African Child, I would like to start by asking for forgiveness from all the children of Kenya. PHOTO| THUMBI MWANGI
What you need to know:
Every day, in the streets of Nairobi the picture of children begging and asking us for food has become so common that we are no longer bothered.
The government estimates that they are more than 60,000 in Nairobi alone and nearly 300,000 in Kenya.
Sometimes, we are covered from head to toe on warm clothing in the chilly weather, but you would see them shivering, their feet almost cramped to total immobility.
As we commemorate the Day of the African Child, I would like to start by asking for forgiveness from all the children of Kenya. Our indifference has contributed to your suffering.
Late last year, I walked into a children’s rescue centre in Lower Kabete, Nairobi. The pictures of what I saw there have remained burnt in my memory.
I saw children who had had been savagely beaten, some by their biological mothers. On a two year old’s back, I saw raw wounds caused by blunt hot objects.
Words cannot begin to describe what I felt when I saw the fear in that boy’s eyes, the very eyes that also begged for a touch more tender than what he was accustomed to.
I was relieved that they had come to this rescue centre but it got me reflecting on the experience. As an adult, I would have a problem accessing my emotions to cope with that kind of treatment, so how was this child going to move past this and become a normal, functioning adult? If he became an antisocial, violent person, wouldn’t we blame his environment?
Every day, in the streets of Nairobi the picture of children begging and asking us for food has become so common that we are no longer bothered.
The government estimates that they are more than 60,000 in Nairobi alone and nearly 300,000 in Kenya. Sometimes, we are covered from head to toe on warm clothing in the chilly weather, but you would see them shivering, their feet almost cramped to total
immobility.
Isn’t it amazing how we worry about the physical and emotional wellbeing of our own children and completely assume that those looking at us in the street do not need and deserve the same attention that we lavish ours with?
CREATION OF OUR GREED AND PRIDE
We should apologise to these kids because they suffer for the sins that we as adults have created. Walk into social services department you will find 6 months old children whose sexual organs have been mutilated by men and women who have quarrelled with their spouses.
They are injured in wars that we have created in our greed and pride. They are plucked from the warmth of their homes and friends in conflict that our pride have perpetuated. And when we did, we leave them orphaned and alone.
What is galling is that whenever you call on the society to help, people drop one liners like “If you help that one child, and you have not fixed the system, you will never solve the problem”.
What a cowardly escape and absolving ourselves of responsibility. Should the child just wait until it is sorted so that they can be safe from sexual predation, hunger, homelessness?
Is there something the one year old should do to be unburdened of the torture that is their life? Should we be surprised then if children with disadvantaged backgrounds turn out to be detsructive adults?
We owe children an opportunity to build their future. So, whether you have children of your own or not, make a decision that any that passes in your hand today may not get a five star treatment but they will be fed, loved unconditionally and educated.
It is sad that the ruthless capitalistic society that we have created robs kids of their childhood. We have turned them into bargaining chips for financial stability in courts.
We have made them labourers in our houses. Because they are weak and dependent, they are the ones that we vent all our anger on when the source of our anger is someone we cannot confront. Protect a child today. Any child.
