Nairobi County Chief Officer for Environment, Geoffrey Mosiria, has called on the relevant authorities to intervene and curb the rampant mistreatment of persons living with disabilities in the Central Business District (CBD).
Taking to social media on Saturday, October 4, Mosiria revealed that he had been receiving reports of suspected trafficking of the PWDs, who are then used to make money for their captors.
Most disturbingly, Mosiria claimed that the victims are held at the same premises and transported to the CBD streets daily to beg for money from unsuspecting Kenyans.
"I have been receiving disturbing reports from concerned citizens regarding a group of cartels allegedly involved in trafficking persons with disabilities from neighbouring countries into our city," Mosiria stated.
"According to these reports, the individuals are housed in one location and transported daily to the streets to beg for money."
Mosiros further added that, in addition to being held for panhandling, the victims are allegedly closely monitored by cartels in the industry to ensure that they keep doing as instructed.
Once donations reach a certain amount, the cartels collect the money from them.
It is further alleged that these cartels assign handlers to monitor each person with a disability, and once donations reach a certain amount, the money is collected from them.
Calling in the relevant authorities to intervene, Mosiria opined, "This is a deeply troubling and exploitative practice.
"I call upon the relevant authorities to conduct thorough investigations into this matter and take decisive action to protect the dignity and rights of persons with disabilities," he added.
In June this year, Mosiria also lifted the lid on a syndicate of beggars reportedly using rented young children, pretending to be their own, to gain sympathy from people and exploit them.
Announcing a crackdown on 'fake beggars' in CBD, Mosiria asserted that the removal of the beggars from the streets of the city will be key to protecting the children from harsh conditions in the streets.
A 2022 paper by the European Disability Forum warned that persons with physical or visible disabilities are more likely to be trafficked into forced begging because a visible disability may have a stronger impact on public sympathy.
The paper adds, "Women and girls with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities are more at risk of sexual exploitation because the traffickers consider them easier to manipulate, as they may not immediately identify themselves as victims or are less likely to be believed when reporting the abuse."
Recently, a judge demanded that the government increase the budgetary allocation to tackle human trafficking, which currently stands at 328,000. He further pointed out the lack of training of judicial officers and prosecutors as a hindrance to combating human trafficking.
