A report by BBC has shown that many parents of Somali descent in the UK, whose children are facing a constant threat of being stabbed, often send their teenagers to East Africa with most of them landing in Nairobi.
Speaking to BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme, Yusuf (not his real name) revealed that;
"In those few years I was doing my A-levels it was tough. Just seeing people being dropped every other day, being stabbed."
Yusuf was born and raised in London but moved to Nairobi after a close friend in his neighborhood was stabbed to death.
"London's not the place to be for a teenager," he added.
Jamal Hassan, who had fled to Kenya but went back, now mentors young men in London, many from Somali families.
He was sent to Kenya as a teenager and revealed that he found a sense of belonging and freedom that he would never have experienced in London.
"One of the things I'll never forget is the fact that when you walk in the streets in Kenya you don't have to look over your shoulder. I felt a sense of freedom. But for these kids [in London] that can be life and death," he narrated.
Many of the children who land in Kenya are forced to take up manual jobs and endure separation from their parents for very long periods.
Mohamed, who lived in Kenya for a total of 15 months after he was rejected for admissions in numerous UK-based schools, expressed that Kenya has made him a better person.
"Before one goes back to his family in London, you have to show that you're good, you've changed. I could have been out on the streets right now selling drugs, but... the kids in Kenya put school first." Mohamed recounted.
