Despite the governments’ directive to the chiefs and educational officials to ensure that every school-going child attends school, there are children roaming the streets of Nakuru town and a number of them claim they were send away from school due to lack of uniform.
The Chairman of the People’s Watch Lobby Group Jesse Karanja said the children on the streets were an illustration of government officials not taking their roles seriously since the small children were all over.
Speaking today during a press conference in Nakuru town, Karanja said it was unfortunate that society has reached a level where every child who wanders on the street is simply dismissed as a street urchin.
“The directive to return every child to school did not discriminate against street children, hence it’s unfortunate that young children, and mostly boys as young as seven years are on the streets,’’ said Karanja.
However, the ministry of education officials in Nakuru County refused to comment on the claim from some children roaming the Nakuru Town streets that they had been chased away from school due to lack of uniform.
One of the children who accepted to be interviewed by KNA Joseph Kimani, said he lives with his grandmother and she could not afford to buy him a school uniform but insisted that if he gets the uniform he was more than willing to return to school.
by Veronica Bosibori
