The State Department for Social Protection On Tuesday, April, 11 rolled out a Ksh50 million project for street families.
Chairperson of the Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund (SFRTF) Mary Wambui commissioned the initiative during a capacity-building workshop at a Nakuru hotel.
"The fund will also be used in conducting a national census of street families in bid to obtain an actual street population," stated the former Othaya Member of Parliament.
Moving forward, the government shifted the focus of rehabilitation of street families from the children's homes to family and community care.
The new approach of rehabilitating street families aims at solving the challenges that occur when those placed in children's homes attain 18 years.
"The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is partnering with rehabilitation centers, children's homes, and religious institutions to address the problem of street families," explained Mary Wambui.
According to to the former lawmaker, each family is unique and therefore one approach may not solve the issue.
“Giving them a house is not enough, they also need psycho-social support, income-generating activities, and education so that they can stay off the streets,” Wambui explained.
Kenya held he first national census of street families in 2018 in partnership with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
From the 2018 National Census, there were 46,639 people living on the streets in Kenya, out of which 72.4 per cent were male.
The counties with the highest number of street persons were Nairobi with 15,337, Mombasa 7,529, Kisumu 2,746, Uasin Gishu 2,147 and Nakuru 2,005.
The SFRTF acting Chief Executive Officer Carolyne Towett explained that the fund was working to reintegrate the street persons back into the community by addressing discrimination and stigma, rejection and exclusion from society.
“Even after rehabilitation, street children continue to feel excluded from society and mistreated, despite the fact that all they want is to fit in and live normal lives,” stated Towett.
Towwet disclosed that the expected census will capture data on various aspects of street families, including the socio-economic and political factors behind their current circumstances.
Previous census revealed that reasons for families going to the streets included fear of being reprimanded, corporal punishment, lack of school fees, mistreatment by relatives and mental illness. Others were death of parents, domestic violence peer influence and being born on the streets.
Majority of children who lived on the streets with parents were below 10 years of age while 24 per cent were orphans, according to the survey.
