Since the beginning of time humans and animals has lived close to the water. And tourists draws to water too to relax and take a good swim. But some tourists do things they wouldn’t dare to do in their own country. At home they would suffer prosecution, their neighbours and relatives would know and in jail they would get hell as hurting a child is a no-no even for a murderer. But when “this” European, American, Australian, Japanese (not exclusivle only) comes to a country like Kenya, Thailand or Lithuania with high rates of people with low or no income these tourists thinks it’s ok to abuse children. Well.. it’s not! No matter where it is!
/Peter
The recent incident in which 18 children were rescued from the hands of suspected child traffickers from an unregistered children’s home in Likoni, Mombasa, is an ominous sign that the Coast is becoming a human trafficking gateway.
The children were later returned to their homes in Mwatate constituency, Taita District.
Children, especially those from poor families and those from the streets are increasingly being lured into these homes, with promises of better lives, but instead, they end up being abused by the owners of these homes.
In the Likoni incident, the 18 children were reportedly being exposed to harsh and inhuman conditions, while being offered one meal a day.
Unregistered homes
“The main problem has been caused by the proliferation of unregistered children’s homes where child traffickers masquerade as philanthropists, only to turn into beasts and abuse their charges,” says Taita-Taveta children’s officer George Migosi.
Poverty and child neglect also contribute to the problem, according to Mr Migosi, as some parents fail to fend for their children and see it fit to give them away to the homes.
Mr Migosi pointed out that out of the 18 children rescued from Mombasa, four were from the same family. They are being held at Mwatate Children’s home.
“The father, who has since parted with his wife, has a case to answer for neglecting the children, and saw it fit to give them away to the woman who has since been exposed as a child trafficker,” said Mr Migosi.
The woman from Mwachabo Location in Mwatate has since been arrested together with a male accomplice.
Joyce Bahati Wali and Mr Paul Nzuku Katha have been charged in a Voi court for conspiring to engage in child trafficking and are out on bond, awaiting fresh charges to be preferred against them by the Children’s Department.
Human rights groups have, on many occasions, rang alarm bells over the issue of child slavery especially in Malindi and Mombasa, where tourists engage in sexual abuse of underage girls, as well as sexually assaulting boys.
There have also been fears that some corrupt children’s officers connive with the traffickers to cover up the evil.
“Some of the senior children’s officers could be involved in the child trafficking scandals, as it beats logic why such a vice could take root in society and yet they are supposed to investigate these things,” says a volunteer officer in Mwatate, Mr Eric Mbaruk.
Kenya has been cited as one of the origins of children trafficked into the UK and other countries in Africa.
In September last year, police in Western Province smashed a racket involving child traffickers, which had been going on for years.
During the incident, officers, posing as potential customers, arrested a key “supplier” and four others in Kericho Town. One of the key suspects, a woman, brought children from a village in Emuhaya.
Many children trafficked in the country end up in major towns working as house helps and baby-sitters.
A Congolese woman was also charged recently in a Nairobi court with trafficking children.
The woman was accused of taking the children to DRC to work in the commercial sex industry.
In the UK, an estimated 500 African children a year, many of them babies, are being trafficked and end up working as virtual slaves.
The revelations were made late last year when it is said children were sold by their poor parents for up to $10,000 (Sh630,000 million).
Teenage girls
An undercover reporter, working for the Daily Telegraph newspaper, was offered several children for sale by their parents in Nigeria: Two boys aged three and five for $10,000, or $5,000 for one, and a 10-month-old baby for $4,000.
Teenage girls - including some still pregnant - were willing to sell their babies for less than $2,000.
The Telegraph report said that “impoverished African parents are being lured by the traffickers’ promises of ‘a better life’ for their children, thousands of kilometres away.
But, once brought to Britain, the children are used as a fraudulent means to obtain illicit housing and other welfare benefits, totalling tens of thousands of dollars each a year.
Pascal Mwandambo And Sam Kiplagat
Nairobi
Source:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804151281.html
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