International labour organisation
Chapter 1 3.0 Introduction
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- 3.1 The Phenomenon of Child Labour in Kenya
Chapter 13.0 IntroductionKenya is situated on the east coast of Africa. The population is estimated to be 32 million with an annual growth rate of 2.4 %11. Life expectancy has declined from 57 years in 1990 to 46 years in 200212. Kenya is divided into eight administrative provinces, which are further divided into 72 districts (there have been a number of new districts established but these have not been gazetted or formalized and as such, the true number of districts is not established). Approximately 75-80 % of the total county land mass is designated as arid and semi arid lands and is home to the Kenyan pastoralists and some hunter gatherers communities, who are claiming an indigenous identity on the basis of what they perceive and experience as ongoing policy and social exclusion, human rights abuses, social discrimination and institutionalised marginalisation. Kenya is a multi-lingual and multi-cultural society. However, certain communities dominate the institutions of policymaking, governance, decision-making and resource sharing to their own advantage and to the chagrin of the other numerically small and not well to do communities. The pastoralists and hunter-gatherers are among the Kenyan communities that feel they are not well-appreciated and recognized as equal citizens and they have used diverse and different fora to express their dissent. According to a joint study by the Society for International Development (SID), Ministry of Planning and National Development, Kenya is among the top ten most unequal countries in the world and fifth in Africa.13 The report further confirms that inequality is visible and a significant phenomenon affecting individual, group and communal human rights, access to basic needs and rights, the right to participation in decision-making processes. However, inequality has not been strongly addressed or interrogated in the policy or scholarly discourse in Kenya. The study also confirms that inequality plays a significant role and matters not only in economic and social development but also in a number of ways. Excessive inequality breeds and contributes to social instability, divisiveness, social and violent conflicts among others. The on- going dispossession of traditional lands has contributed, to a large extent and among other factors, to increased poverty, cultural disorientation and breakdown and social stress among the pastoralists and hunter gatherers communities in Kenya. Nationally, 56% of the Kenyan population live below the poverty line with the majority being in the remote - rural areas.14 The government had set a target of reducing poverty by 20% in 2004 and a further 30% in 2010. These targets are far from being met for a number of reasons; amongst them, complications being brought by HIV/AIDS that is tearing apart the most productive segment of the population and unfavourable climatically conditions such as severe droughts and, not least, increasing inequality countrywide. According to UNAIDS, there are 1.1 million children orphans as a consequence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, most of whom are trying to make ends meet through child labour.15 The regions inhabited by pastoralists and hunter-gatherers communities are among the poorest in the country. For instance, 73.1% of the population in the North- Eastern Province live below the poverty line as compared to 35.3 % in the Central Province, which is predominantly occupied by agricultural communities. The study also raises serious concerns on matters related to gender based and domestic violence, and conflict and how they are driving segments of society into perpetual poverty. In fact, children constitute a large proportion of the Kenyan population with 40.6% of population being below the age of 14 years of age. The under -five mortality rate stands at 122 per thousands and is on the increase. 16 The gap between the rich and the poor is huge and visible as one passes by different regions. Available information indicates that there are about 1.3 million children who are economically active and 2.2 million who are out of school and stand a potential risk of joining the employment circle any moment. Most child labourers are in the age bracket of 12-17 years but it is not strange to find children under ten in labour and out of school. 3.1 The Phenomenon of Child Labour in KenyaIt is estimated that 180 million children aged between 5-17 years are engaged in the worst forms of child labour17. UNICEF further estimates that in developing countries, at least 250 million children aged between 5-14 years have to work to make a living. Many more “are uncounted and uncountable, they are everywhere but invisible, toiling as domestic servants behind the walls or workshops, hidden from the view of plantations”18. The pastoralists and hunter-gatherer children are not included in the accounted lot, not because they are hidden but simply because these communities are physically far removed from and excluded and have been ignored by most if not all the studies undertaken for purposes of delineating and understanding child labour. These studies have mainly concentrated on the urban centres. On the whole, the studies have given more attention to child labour in commercial activities. The traditional occupations and livelihood of indigenous peoples is to a large extent not recognized by the national policies and as such by the bureaucrats. This makes it easy for child labour among these communities to be ignored. The ILO/IPEC has funded most of the studies in Kenya and out of all these studies undertaken so far, none gave attention to the indigenous children19. However, it is notable and commendable that ILO/IPEC has supported about 95% of studies of child labour in Kenya. This gives an indication of its overall commitment in addressing this vice. The phenomenon of child labour is not new in Kenya and the world over. In most societies it is widely and largely accepted and recognized as the means of mentoring and enabling children to develop certain skills, to prepare them for certain roles in society and learn to be independent. The scenario and circumstances in which child labour happens has changed leading to the demand by world nations to interrogate and define different notions or facets of child labour. There are now three accepted facets of child labour: child labour, child work and the Worst Forms of Child Labour20. Child work is work done by children for purposes of socialisation and normal development under supervision as long as it does not deprive them of their education and other rights. Child labour is generally defined as work undertaken by children in the age group of 5-17 that prevents them from attending school and inhibits their general growth and/or development. The worst forms of child labour is labour which takes the form of slavery or bondage, prostitution or pornographic performance, drug trafficking or work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of the child.
The current National Development Plan 2002-2008, states that Child Labour is an “emerging and disturbing phenomenon. That the impact of child labour both at the individual and national levels, need to be evaluated seriously as it has adverse implications on the quality of future of labour force”21. The plan suggests the free primary education as one of the strategies to address the problem. The 1998/99 child labour survey (later published in 2001) remains the most comprehensive and consolidated data on nature and extent of child labour in Kenya. It gives the national picture on the extent and distribution of the vice; however, it is still lacking in terms of disaggregated data on the number of pastoralists children squarely affected by the vice. Pastoralism is lumped up together with subsistence agriculture. According to the draft National Policy on the Child Labour, there are four main economic sectors are known to engage children in worst forms of child Labour. These are domestic service, commercial sex, agriculture (commercial, subsistence and pastoralism) and street working children in informal sectors. It is important to note that child labour is evident and existing in all sectors of life in Kenya, however, the above named have the high proportion of child labourers. The national data are given here below.
Source: 1998/99 Child Labour Survey Report. So, where are the working children- aiming on a moving target? The Geographical distribution of working children is shown below.
Source: 1998/99 Child Labour Survey The national data formation does not clearly capture the nature and extent of child labour among the pastoralists and hunter-gatherers communities. The majority of children from pastoralists’ communities are engaged in domestic herding. The children have to work to contribute to household asset management (mainly livestock) and to learn skills in indigenous traditional livelihood, traditional occupations and cultural heritage. However, commercialized herding is on the increase just as much as poverty level. The orphaned children and those from poor household are hired out to the well to do families and their parents are paid in return. Due to the fact that the education system is not flexible and not sensitive to indigenous peoples’ needs and livelihood system, the herds’ boys and girls, do miss out in the education system. This trend is likely to increase, unless the main duty bearer, the government, takes deliberate and decisive measures to make education relevant and adaptive to indigenous livelihood. The indigenous communities are not homogenous in nature as mostly understood, generalised and/or assumed by policy makers and development practitioners. There are some historical concealed forms of discrimination based on social origin, descent and work practiced. There are sub-tribes who are socially discriminated against, based on their descent and nature of occupations or work such as social groups occupy a lower caste. Due to their extreme poverty, they end up being the main providers of child labour. Such socially discriminated groups include the Ilkunono, among the Samburu and Rendile, the Malakote and Muyoya communities in Garissa and Tana River Districts. The Ogiek children are also employed by the mainstream communities to work in tea plantations among other tasks. There is no single intervention deliberately targeting these communities. They continue to be enormously voiceless and dominated by other pastoralists’ communities. The indigenous communities have elaborate and powerful traditional customs, culture, value systems & norms, traditional institutions of governance, indigenous technical knowledge- that forms their heritage. Some cultural practices are known and do actually have negative effects on the individual health and full enjoyment of equal rights. Certain cultural practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (also known as excision, female Circumcision) and forced early marriages are “entry points” or conduits that lead to increased child labour among girls. This practice is common in almost all Kenyan communities that are claiming indigenous identity. Directory: res res -> General text for tender (recommendations) for Pilkington Profilit™ Contents Page res -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose res -> Make Me a Superhero – Resilient People Sir Chris Hoy born 23 March 1976 res -> Occupational health and safety res -> Practice learning res -> Principal’s Report 2013-2014 res -> Charter School Enrollment Data Annual Report res -> The Rise of Video Games Section “Word” Matt Spencer Download 304.23 Kb. Share with your friends:
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