The Homa Bay County Commissioner (CC), Samson Irungu has said broken families and polygamy are some of the factors which have contributed to the raising numbers of street children in the region.
Irungu said that men in polygamous marriages have the tendency of neglecting their first wives together with their children and cling to the second one thus abandoning the children which leads to many of them going to the street.
He said this on Friday while addressing members of the Homa Bay Bunge la Wananchi, where he said that parents should avoid misunderstandings that could lead to divorce as these results in the rise of street children in the region.
The administrator added that a report which was conducted last year by the department of children services revealed that statistics of street children in Homa Bay county stands at 28 per cent.
At the same time, Irungu called on parents to take care of their children by taking them to school to prevent child labour and help the government achieve the 100 percent target of free education nationwide.
He said that child labour in Homa Bay County has been noted on fish harvesting and small businesses such as selling groundnuts.
On security issue in learning institutions,Irungu called upon parents to advice their children to respect school property and the welfare of others.
By Bwabi Okola/ Davis Langat
