By Karanja Njoroge
Nakuru, Kenya: Residents of Nakuru county have lamented the increasing number of street children saying they pose a huge security risk.
They range from street boys and girls to prostitutes and other idlers sparking fear among the residents.
Glue sniffing, shaggy and rowdy youths harass shoppers along the town’s Kenyatta Avenue and other streets, forcefully asking for money and pick pocketing unsuspecting citizens.
Visitors walking along any of the town’s main streets are greeted by heartrending pictures of street mothers sitting on pavements soliciting for alms. Once described as East Africa’s cleanest towns, stakeholders are now concerned that the street families could turn it into a home of muggers and robbers.
Residents and traders say the unchecked number of street families in the town was not only distressing but was also a security scare to investors. Over the last six years, the town has experienced rapid increase in property value triggering growth that is signified by its changed skyline.
Areas where street children have become a major menace include Nyayo Gardens, Municipal Council market, parts of industrial area and Kenyatta Avenue.
The desolate families pester everyone, including tourists visiting major attractions in the region, posing a threat to the fragile sector.
Shoppers in supermarkets are forced to devise ways of avoiding the families that camp outside the outlets to save themselves from embarrassment arising from their crude antics.
“Immediately you leave the supermarket the street children come asking for the extra coins and it borders on harassment as they keep on pestering you,” says Florence Wanjiku, a resident.
Wanjiku says it becomes shameful if one has nothing to give the children as they resort to menacingly issuing threats or hurl insults. “They have become a nightmare to regular shoppers and of concern is that their number keeps increasing by the day,” she told The Standard.
Roam aimlessly
In another part of the town, the urchins roam aimlessly bothering motorists and demanding for cash in order to protect Motorists who park their vehicles and leave them unattended pay a heavy price after finding valuables missing and some of the spare parts removed.
“Last December, I lost property worth Sh200,000 for my optical shop after I parked my vehicle and left it unattended for a few minutes. I do no think some of the items stolen were of any value to the street boys as they were strictly related to my work,” a local optician who requested anonymity said.
Encounters with the streets families have at times turned tragic with at least two residents losing their lives after rowdy urchins allegedly attacked them in two separate incidents last year.
Some of the girls involved in commercial sex work in the town sneaked from the IDP camps and now roam the streets in a desperate effort to earn a living.
